Blessed Light in PvE

Seef II

Seef II

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

US

R/Mo

I've been following this thread with some interest trying to optimize my monking in PvE. The debate there boiled down to hybrid monks versus pure healers and/or protters. That is, "party member compression": one monk doing the job of what two monks would have done.

What about bar compression? Back in the Prophecies days, I ran boon prot; after its nerf, I followed the GvG trends and ran BLight in PvE, which worked more or less okay until Nightfall. Now, with WoH + GoLE buffed long since Factions' release, along with more niche tools like RC and Divert Hexes coming into the fray, have these new Monk elites completely left BLight in the dust?

[skill]Blessed Light[/skill]
BLight is a great bar compression skill - it self-targets, gives a good heal, and cleans you up. When the three things it does proc and hit a sweet spot, it's quite efficient. However, in PvE, you often don't care about stuff like Blind on your casters or junk like Ignorance on your nukers. The AI spreading random debuffs on your party seems more like a hindrance than a help to me. You see a green health bar down to 50%, and a purple arrow - but the only thing that you probably did was remove a Painful Bond that wouldn't matter after the next few seconds. (While that's an argument for better battlefield awareness, bear with me here.)

What drove Blessed Light out of the PvE meta? Few monks I've pugged with, or even in my guild, seem to use it. The former stick with the old Orison-Kiss-bar full of junk-Rebirth template while the latter play the generally more accepted hybrids or Healer's Boon. Is BLight simply not efficient enough, even considering its potential for bar compression? IMO, If anything, the template should have gotten a buff with the GoLE changes since Factions.

Anyway, just wondering about your thoughts. (PvE only please, I've watched the death of the BLight template in PvP through obs.)

DarkGanni

DarkGanni

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

Malta

[CuTe]

E/

10 energy

nuff said

- Ganni

Div

Div

I like yumy food!

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where I can eat yumy food

Dead Alley [dR]

Mo/R

The only thing you get out of bar compression in PvE is the ability to put MORE skills on your bar, namely, more prots. Essentially, you don't need a condition removal, hex removal, or even a power heal. However, the thing is that at 10 energy, is a monk going to use it to remove cripple? What about some minor hex? What if they have no condis/hexes?

In the cripple case, one would use dismiss for a nice 100ish point heal as well as the condition removal. For hexes, a cure hex is much better and energy efficient. For a straight heal, you wouldn't use blight, and if you want to use gift of health, that's a slot used up and your bar isn't really compressed.

Now, let's take a look at a standard WoH hybrid I use:
SoA, RoF, WoH, Seed of life/Cure hex, Dismiss, PS, Aegis, Glyph

If you replace WoH with Blight, it allows you to take out...cure and dismiss! But in the aforementioned case, if you want a powerheal, you'd replace it with gift, and have one open slot for another prot. Say shielding hands. So basically, you're trading the efficiency of removing conditions and hexes (while providing a heal comparable to Blight at half the energy cost) for another prot. To me, that's not worth it, since I mainly run seed of life anyways, so you'd be switching out WoH/Dismiss for Blight/Gift, which is much weaker in terms of both healing and condition control.

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by holymasamune
In the cripple case, one would use dismiss for a nice 100ish point heal as well as the condition removal. For hexes, a cure hex is much better and energy efficient. For a straight heal, you wouldn't use blight, and if you want to use gift of health, that's a slot used up and your bar isn't really compressed. The Beauty of Blessed Light is that the skill does all three at once rather then cast two or three spells to remove hex, condition, or heal. If you plan on using it I think it would be best in areas where enemies hex and condition spam a lot.

I think Blessed Light saw the most use in the pre-inspiration nerf, but if you want to use the skill there's nothing stopping you from building a bar around it. Just make sure you can manage your energy because it's pretty expensive for rapid casting, maybe bring a energy management like Glyph of Lesser Energy.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

The only place I'd look at Blessed Light is as a Smiter's Boon elite. Healing and Prot elites blow it away. It's only common use was as a self-sufficiency tool back in the days when Monks didn't need to use their elites, and there weren't good elites to take. That's not the case anymore.

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
The only place I'd look at Blessed Light is as a Smiter's Boon elite. Healing and Prot elites blow it away. It's only common use was as a self-sufficiency tool back in the days when Monks didn't need to use their elites, and there weren't good elites to take. That's not the case anymore. Wow funny you should say that, because I use Blessed Light too with my smiter's boon. Though I alternate between Blessed Light, and Balthazar's Pendulum in PvP because Pendulum is cheaper, is powered by smiter's boon, and sends the Knockdowns back at the people trying to use them.

However back to the topic BLight is probably better in PvE as a Multi-Heal as your not going to run into a lot of knockdown enemies as you would in PvP Arenas. Just bring some energy management and use it wisely and try not to rapid cast it.

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

oh yeah I just thought of some more energy management choices you could use besides GoLE.

With a investment in Inspiration Magic [skill]Ether Signet[/skill] can be of use, or if your good at using it [skill]Power Drain[/skill] works too, and possibly [skill]channeling[/skill] though this skill hasn't been really successful for me. You can run with those and see if they help you with Blessed Light's Energy problem.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Pendulum is clearly better in PvP where knockdowns are common. In PvE, it doesn't do anything 99% of the time and is a dead elite. Blessed Light or Empathic Removal are the best skills available if you dual spec, though neither is terribly attractive.

cellardweller

cellardweller

Likes naked dance offs

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Older Gamers [TOG]

My partner and I generally run one WoH monk and one Blessed light monk on heroes when we're out. I run a Dragonslasher and use bodyblocking extensively to maximise the effectiveness of adjacent AoE's (primarily my partner's SS). A consequence of this tactic is that I am very often smothered in hex's and conditions which makes BL very effective.

The thing I like about it is the 5s recharge - it doesn't replace dismiss and cure hex, it replaces dismiss and 2 cure hexes. The 10e isn't generally a problem for the ai because I have them run essence bond on myself, giving them an effectively unlimited energy supply.

If you care to rip them appart, the two bars are:
[skill]word of healing[/skill][skill]signet of rejuvenation[/skill][skill]Dwayna's Kiss[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Protective Spirit[/skill][skill]Heal Party[/skill][skill]Essence Bond[/skill]
[skill]Blessed Light[/skill][skill]Gift of health[/skill][skill]reversal of fortune[/skill][skill]Aegis[/skill][skill]Spirit Bond[/skill][skill]Dismiss condition[/skill][skill]Shield of Absorption[/skill][skill]essence bond[/skill]

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

Its a skill that's use as a bar-compressor demands spamming, but its 10 energy cost makes it un-spammable.

it just dosnt really fit on any bar.

horseradish

horseradish

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2007

In a donut hole

Rt/A

If it were 5 energy, I would use it definitely.

One can only hope.

*prays to Izzy*

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

lower the healing and it would be a decent 5-energy elite

Winterclaw

Winterclaw

Wark!!!

Join Date: May 2005

Florida

W/

Yeah, make it 5e and it'd be great to bring around.

Grammar

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Coloneh
lower the healing and it would be a decent 5-energy elite Absolutely. Lower the healing and lower the energy cost to 5, and this replaces WoH on my hybrid bar, no question.

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Grammar
Absolutely. Lower the healing and lower the energy cost to 5, and this replaces WoH on my hybrid bar, no question. mine to. i usually run RC if i have the choice. WoH usually dosnt perform that much better than gift.

Seef II

Seef II

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

US

R/Mo

Gift's nice and all, but not being able to self-target and the 5 s recharge make it a little worse than WoH.
BLight would be pretty awesome at 5/1/5 or so, but it'll never happen. Thanks [dR] guys for the insights.

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Seef II
Gift's nice and all, but not being able to self-target and the 5 s recharge make it a little worse than WoH. a little, but with RoF i hardly ever use WoH on myself anyways. personal preference...

Joshie0808

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2007

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkGanni
10 energy

nuff said

- Ganni My thoughts exactly.

Imo, hex removal isnt that needed in PvE. Normally, in PvE, hex's arent so detrimental to your party, which you'll rather spend 5e spamming dwanya's kiss to bring the bars up rather than concentrate on removing a hex. Cure hex is run more often as a cheap HEAL rather than its main focus, hex removal, because the condition is extremely easy to meet.

Conditions removal is only needed on your rangers and warriors (blind) and daze on casters (and daze in PvE is rarely seen). The fact that WoH, HB, and RC are much cheaper, and versatile means that they'll see higher usage.

Its not that BLight is a bad skill, i think its awesome, but the benefits dont outweigh the costs. Because more spammable elites = higher usage of better skills.. rather than a really good elite at the cost of spammability. The balance between awesome effects, and rate of usage works against BLight in the case, causing it to dissappear of most monk's bars.

JDRyder

JDRyder

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2007

Great temple of Balthazar

Mo/Me

ive always LOVED this skill but its 10energy but i love the skill still D:

a bar i made like 5mins ago is

[skill]blessed light[/skill][skill]reversal of fortune[/skill][skill]signet of devotion[/skill][skill]protective spirit[/skill][skill]glyph of lesser energy[/skill]spotless mind, spotless, soul, rez

ill try it later but i do think it will come out to be more like my other Blight builds ive tryed making, good for easy missions not good for harder missions

i do think this skill needs a buff cause its so almost uber, 5energy and a 10-12 sec recharge id use it a lot more

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by JDRyder
i do think this skill needs a buff cause its so almost uber, 5energy and a 10-12 sec recharge id use it a lot more NOOOOOOO recharge increase! that kills its status as a bar-compressor.

Syntonic

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2007

If it was 5e, it'd be pretty overpowered don't you think? They'd have to tone down the heal to around orison levels to balance it. I think it'd be rather overpowered when compared to the other forms of removal due to Blight's bar compression and versatility. The latter is probably more important in any case since the monk will be able to answer a larger variety of issues far more easily especially if it was at 5e. Still, if they went with a 1s cast, it might not be so bad.

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

Blessed Light shouldn't be Changed at all.

I think if Blessed Light was reduced to 5 Energy then the healing power would definitely have to be reduced.

However If that happens this could unbalance other elites in the monk line. Like [skill]Empathic Removal[/skill] & [skill]Signet of Removal[/skill] would never see any use at all, There would be no advantage to take those elites over Blessed Light anymore.

Plus the General Idea of Blessed Light is that it is [skill]Heal Other[/skill]+[skill]Remove Hex[/skill]+[skill]Mend Ailment[/skill] all rolled into one skill. Empathic Removal and Signet of Removal that remove a hex and condition would become useless as monks would take Blessed Light over them.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

If they restored the recharge to 7s, like it originally was, and dropped the energy cost to 5 it'd be competitive with the other elites available.

Paddatoochie

Paddatoochie

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

The thing I find with Blessed light, is that you still need to pack other healing skills. If the change that Ensign said was to become reality, then you wouldn't be able to use it as your sole healing skill, which in terms of a TA monk bar is the elite slot. You would be forced to bring GoH, and you might potentially still have to bring another condition removal in order to get rid of pesky blinds.

However with 7 recharge it could, I think, easily be used with two Hybrid monks in GvG or HA, but then I'm not experienced in either.

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
If they restored the recharge to 7s, like it originally was, and dropped the energy cost to 5 it'd be competitive with the other elites available. Might be easier and more competitive to reduce Empathic Removal's Recharge to 7 or 8 seconds instead.

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kwan Xi
Might be easier and more competitive to reduce Empathic Removal's Recharge to 7 or 8 seconds instead. Empathic Removal is already 7 seconds.

Empathic isn't a monk skill. It's a Rit skill.
... or maybe a Warrior skill. Maybe.

Anyho, as for Blessed Light... 5e / 3/4 c / 7r would make it a solid skill, one that I'd definately use.

The other idea I saw around I quite liked was keeping it on the same recharge, dropping it to 5 energy, and making you lose an additional 5 energy if it removes a hex. That way, you can spam it around as a general heal/condi remover, or use it as a turbo-charged cleanser if needed.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
The other idea I saw around I quite liked was keeping it on the same recharge, dropping it to 5 energy, and making you lose an additional 5 energy if it removes a hex. Yeah I've seen that idea around; I don't like it at all TBH. It's a mindless 'spam this skill to do absolutely everything' that's so good that it doesn't matter if you meet the conditions on it. It's also patently bad against all but the most casual of hexing, as you can't afford it against any serious hexing. The original version of the skill was something I liked; a skill where you had it for emergencies, or to target carefully when you're meeting all the conditions to get a really efficient cast. I don't see this proposal fitting into either of those molds, as it would be so efficient and recharge so quickly that you don't really care about maximizing it at all; not when you get more mileage out of simply using it as much as possible.

Stormlord Alex

Stormlord Alex

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Beyond the Forest of Doom, past the Cavern of Agony... on Kitten & Puppy Island

Soul of Melandru [sOm]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
Yeah I've seen that idea around; I don't like it at all TBH. It's a mindless 'spam this skill to do absolutely everything' that's so good that it doesn't matter if you meet the conditions on it. It's also patently bad against all but the most casual of hexing, as you can't afford it against any serious hexing. The original version of the skill was something I liked; a skill where you had it for emergencies, or to target carefully when you're meeting all the conditions to get a really efficient cast. I don't see this proposal fitting into either of those molds, as it would be so efficient and recharge so quickly that you don't really care about maximizing it at all; not when you get more mileage out of simply using it as much as possible. Haha, well... you're right as always. But still, it'd be better like the 2nd idea than it is now, and Blessed Light could really do with a buff imo. Not because monks as a whole need buffing, but simply because Blessed Light is too good of a concept, too beautiful a skill to leave in the dust. It's a skill myself - and a fair few friends in-game - really, really like and remember fondly, and we'd all be happy monkies if we can run BL again without feeling gimped <3

the_jos

the_jos

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jun 2006

Hard Mode Legion [HML]

N/

BL has been on some of my hybrid bars for ages and only got swapped after the recent WoH buff.
I used it mostly in condition+hex heavy areas where the condition + hex remover would not be sufficient in some cases. Like critical hexes and conditions being covered by others.

At the moment, the skill is not worth taking for me most of the time because there are better alternatives.

JDRyder

JDRyder

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2007

Great temple of Balthazar

Mo/Me

there is still tons of monk elite stills that are good but there are better skill that are better than it, some of them not even elites


boon signet is 1 of the other skills id like to see buffed wast of a icon, i think 10energy max would make it usable. who know boon prots may come back :O

it needs to be more skills that work in harder missions. its only like 3 or 4 skills any 1 uses any more Woh, SoR, RC and HB and maybe SoD if its gvg but there are ton more RC monks than SoD

1 thing i hope they DO NOT DO is over buff skills. SWG did that and then never debuffed them that just buffed other skills to make it as good as the skill that buffed before and it started to suck. so maybe woh RC and HB need to be nerfed but id like to see some more elites on peoples bars

Coloneh

Coloneh

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2006

D/W

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddatoochie
The thing I find with Blessed light, is that you still need to pack other healing skills. If the change that Ensign said was to become reality, then you wouldn't be able to use it as your sole healing skill, which in terms of a TA monk bar is the elite slot. RC monk is confused

Kwan Xi

Kwan Xi

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2007

Writhe in Pain

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
Empathic Removal is already 7 seconds. So it has... hmmm I never liked the 10 sec recharge which was why I never used it or noticed the change. I guess its time to play around with this skill again.

Besides most of the viable Blessed Light builds in the past always had a healing skill, single condition removal, and hex removal skills in the bar. Blessed Light is still viable if you don't rely on it as the single skill you keep using to just heal minor damage, or remove every minor condition or hex inflicted. You can just heal or remove hex/conditions with just the regular skills until an ally gets into serious enough trouble that warrants BLight's cleansing use.

I still think as long as you use have a energy management and use the skill sparingly and wisely it should be fine as it is.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
But still, it'd be better like the 2nd idea than it is now
The skill would be better of course, but the game would not. The metagame is better off with Blessed Light dead than that sort of crap in the meta.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormlord Alex
but simply because Blessed Light is too good of a concept, too beautiful a skill to leave in the dust. It would no longer have that good concept and be such a beautiful skill if it received that particular buff. It would become a bad concept on a kludgy skill, with a completely different purpose.

Yichi

Yichi

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Sep 2005

Guild Hall, Vent, Guesting, PvE, or the occasional HA match...

Dark Alley [dR]

Drop the healing power of blessed light by maybe like 5-10%, restore the original recharge to 7sec, than reduce the energy cost to 5e.

This way its a spamable hex/condi removal that isnt overpowered in the healing and yet still gives a decent heal to go along with it.

If this buff were to take place, that skill would never leave my monk's bar

Cirian

Cirian

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

European Union

The Amazon Basin

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
The only place I'd look at Blessed Light is as a Smiter's Boon elite.
That's exactly where I started using it, playing around with Smiter's Boon. It's not there to replace Smite Condition and Smite Hex in this case, it's there in part to make up for the slower recharge on smite's removals. It's complimentary.

Taking 13DF/14Smite as my example, smites such as Reversal of Damage, Smite Condition and Smite Hex heal for 84 in addition to their effect under Smiter's Boon - which is amazing. Smite condi/hex back-to-back actually heal more than Blessed Light (168 vs 165), also pull off a hex and condition, while costing the same 10e AND smiting all foes in the area for 137 holy damage (57+80). Eat your heart out HeV!

So, generally for a Smiter's Booner it's not worth casting Blessed Light unless your target is really, really screwed and time is of the essence - at which point it's awesome and worth spending 10e.

RoD is another amazing skill under Smiter's Boon. Heal for 84 on a 1/4s cast, negate up to 70 damage from the next hit and send it back to the attacker.

The 3 padding skills I've been using are Watchful Healing, GoLE and Sig of Devotion.

This kind of "Smiter's Light" monk has a sort of... "Counter Hit" feel to it. The opponent makes their moves, the monk counter hits in the optimal way with RoD/SC/SH. It totally sucks at damage negation though, so that has to come from allies or stuff will explode. It's totally different from the RC/prot that I'm used to, but it works and it's fun, so Blessed Light has it's place.

Seef II

Seef II

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

US

R/Mo

BLight, if you plan to use it at with any sort of reasonable frequency at all, should be supplemented by sig of devotion. You may as well, if you're putting 13-14 into Divine Favor.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirian
there in part to make up for the slower recharge on smite's removals. It's complimentary.
Essentially, there is no good elite that you can put on a Smiter's Boon bar for PvE, so you might as well take a look at your second rate options. Blessed Light isn't good, but it at least can be used in the old school 'oh shit' style which is worth something. You won't touch your elite 90% of the time, which is generally bad but, again, no good elites.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Cirian
The 3 padding skills I've been using are Watchful Healing, GoLE and Sig of Devotion. One other thing you might consider doing is switching to 13 Divine / 11 Smiting / 11 Prot, and taking a couple prot skills that way, instead of having to fill slots with significantly more questionable skills. The hit to your Smite Hex and Smite Condition is a bit harsh though.

Kaida the Heartless

Kaida the Heartless

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

N/

I only see Blessed Light needing a change if Hexes were to make some sort of strange comeback; something that Spotless Mind couldn't cover. Bringing Divert Hexes is just asking for a useless elite versus anything else. Divine Favor is slowly gaining more candidates to use in conjunction with Deny Hexes, but Divine Spirit is the only skill even semi worth it's weight in that respect. Then again, Spotless mind still makes me want to delete all the above text. It's mulitple removals with only a single slot.

But, back on track...

Just like Ensign said, the skill (Blessed Light) is better left out of the meta at the moment. Big "/agree" there.

wally

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Sep 2006

To build off of Ensign's suggestion, would it be worth going somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 Prot? Prot spirit and Shield of Absorption are still just as effective and of decent duration (moreso SoA) at this spec.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Yeah it could be. You could get a good Aegis and Prot Spirit at 7 Prot, which only costs you one point of either smiting or divine. The 11 Prot bit was a PvP spec I've used to get a really good Guardian, which isn't that important in PvE.