Wednesday, January 5, 2011

In Defense of Lightwell

Cata has changed everything.

One of the biggest reminders of that is that Lightwell is one of the most potent heals in the game and a key heal that tanks should be aware of.

First a quick review of its behavior:

Its a Holy Priest talent.
It is on a 3 minute cool down.
It can be cast before combat--so technically it provides infinite healing per mana--because you shouldn't be pulling until the priest is back up to full. Even cast in combat it has a ridiculously mana efficient heal.
It has to be clicked on--but it has a HUGE click rage--15 yards. If you and your pack of mobs are anywhere vaguely near the Lightwell, everyone should be able to click it.
Lightwell has a limited number of charges (14 unglyphed I think, 18 glyphed) that apply a hot for 14k or so HP.
The HoT will stop if you take 30% of your HP as damage in a single blow--which is north of 35,000 HP in a single shot (after armor)--which is rare outside of raids.

When is the right time to click on the Lightwell?
Really any time you are taking damage is good. This is Cataclysm, not Wrath. Your HP pool is many times larger than any healers biggest heal. You will not be flash healed to full HP. I would say you are quite safe in clicking the Lightwell for a charge anytime you are down 50k HP (or 30kHP if you want to be aggressive).

I know the first couple of runs with the Former Horde Priest my situational awareness didn't particularly key on Lightwell and I underused it. Now I am quite aware of it and try and click a charge anytime it looks like it will help out the healer.

No comments: