Divinity should be better than it is

| Monday, April 20, 2009
I don't like divinity much. I should though. 5% more healing should be a good talent, but it isn't.

The problem is with how healing works, or more accurately, how it fails. Rarely do I see a tank die because there was not enough healing output. Instead I see them die because of healing timing. A small heal now which keeps the tank above zero is infinitely better than a big heal a tenth of a second later. Divinity doesn't help with timing.

It will, however, make that small heal bigger. Will that help? I doubt it. Instead it's likely that that timed heal will be followed by several more spam heals which get the tank to full, and a little bit more. In this situation the 5% contributed to nothing but overhealing.

However I must admit that this is based on the assumption that a tank dies in 2-3 hits in Ulduar. Maybe I'm wrong. If damage comes in smaller amounts, heals can as well and rather than 5% being ovehealing, it can be a cancel on 1 in 5 heals.

It all comes back around to my hatred of effective health as a critical matter for tanks.

But what about imp devo aura?

However I shouldn't pick and choose when to use this reasoning. After all, if 5% is useless, is not imp devo useless as well? 6% isn't all that much better than 5%. As I considered this self-critique I decided to recheck imp devo. My first incorrect bit was that it was 3% (I don't know how I managed to forget). The second was that it also has additional armor on it. It's an effective health increase, not just a healing increase.

Furthermore, the healing bonus covers many people. This becomes useful since AoE healing, in my experience, is sometime about output in addition to timing. That 6% can start to have an effect and with JoL it provides a significant increase to raid healing.

Where else would I spend the points?
PoJ for sure. It's stronger than run speed enchants which means slightly better ability to get into position for avoiding fires, getting into range, or moving mobs. Furthermore, this means I can get a different boot enchant, one with more stamina.

Other popular points seem to be conviction and crusade for aggro.

Retribution?
This was only for prot. I have it as ret, I think it's useful. For soloing it means 10% stronger self-healing (5% out and 5% in). In groups it means increased healing from JoL, helping to compensate for SoB. I suppose it's also a boost to DS healing as well.

It's also good for holy, I think. I don't know much about holy.

7 comments:

Chrom said...

5% in and 5% out? can we confirm that this talent stacks? i mean it makes sense, but is there any documentation that these talents equal to 10% plus heals for the pally when healing himself?

Dorgol said...

@Chrom - Everything I've read says it does stack. It also stacks with Improved Devotion / Tree of Life aura. Prot Paladins with Divinity and Improved Devo are getting an 11% increase to all healing received. If the Holy Paladin ALSO has Divinity it's 16%.

However, most Holy Paladins aren't getting the full 5 points. Personally I have 2 or 3 points in Divinity while I moved into Ret for the crit talents.

Iapetes said...

It's nice in that a paladin who is speccing holy/prot (generally for pvp of course) has a talent he can get that improves his healing.

Also useful for prot paladins in the absence of anything better min/max wise but Kleps ignores me and is determined to dislike this talent.

Iapetes said...

OTOH I assume that mana could actually be an issue in ulduar, maybe it isn't still though.

Iapetes said...

that's mana for healers not the tank. I wish you could edit these.

Stabs said...

"Divinity should be better than it is"

God just called, he agrees.

Klepsacovic said...

@Chrom: I can only follow the masses who claim it does. Independent thought has no place here!

@Iapetes: 5% overhealing or 15% run speed and increased damage.
http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#sZV0tAMuMGsIufdxf0hbM
If downranking was still around this talent would be a must-have since it would truly be a 5% boost. For min-max, how can you really take advantage of this? It doesn't make you harder to kill, it doesn't increase aggro, and it isn't going to make you easier to heal unless overhealing has gone way way down in Ulduar.
P.S. There's a preview option. :P

@Stabs: Did it come up on caller ID or did he just claim he was God? You have to watch out for those scammers, offering "heaven, $50 cheep 4 eternal blis!"

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