Discussions about wp specifications (salvation vs. grace vs. wrath)
usually, but not always, take one of two forms:
- Listing of ALL the spells level-by-level for each spec (too much info)
- Quick, useless stereotypes that miss useful detail.
Laced with opinion, here is mah best effort so far to strike a middle
ground. Let me know whatchya think and ah'll try to improve it to yer
liking.
Primary Salvation
The major potential benefits of a primary salvation spec are
in mah opinion, in order of what's defining and useful:
(1) The option of an AOE heal
(2) Higher instant burst dot and group healing
(3) Higher armor group buff (660 for full salv spec)
(4) The option of a little additional group damage absorption
capability
(5) The option of raising the single target debuff cleanse to
a group-wide benefit.
(6) The option of a light group heal dot that combined with 3rd
party add-ons makes it easy to see who is within 100ft.
Many of those other things that you may consider salvation spec
are available to all wps or the difference due to spec is just not
that inspiring.
While clearly by design salvation spec leads to higher healing,
wp spec is only one of many slices to the healing focus pie.
Reknown spending, talisman choices, armor set, liniment use,
accessories, tactics selection, etc., have significant additional
impact on healing vs. other valuable skills like survivability.
And here's the key point, surely, odds are, a salvation spec wp will
lean towards related decisions that sacrifice one-on-one survivability
for healing, further widening the gap. However, not necessarily, as a
grace primary wp could load up on healing specific equipment and
choices, narrowing the healing gap.
w/Grace Secondary
It is by far more common for Salvation spec wps to go secondary in
grace (than wrath). So how does this benefit the wp? Well, honestly,
I think it's about you got to put the post-primary points somewhere, why
not the one of the two remaining specs that's more about healing and
buffing than wrath is. To me the more interesting grace-as-secondary
benefits are:
(1) An increase in the automatic group heal benefit that heals group
a bit when they do damage a % of the time, 20%ish inc from spec.
(2) A tactic to ensure the optional automatic group heal benefit/aura
also has a chance to send the heal back to the wp.
(3) A buff upon melee strike now gives toughness of 100ish to one target,
not just strength as with all wps. Others consider this more useful
than I do.
(4) Four of the melee strikes do more damage.
w/Wrath Secondary
This is overlooked often by wps who might conclude, hey, if I wanted
to do serious damage I'd be a dps. However, I think there are two
great crippling effects accessible for Wrath secondary that should
be considered in this decision:
(1) A tactic to raise the slow-upon-strike-if-cursed melee hit to a
longer duration and makes it a 20ft AOE.
(2) A melee strike that reduces healing to your target by 25%. The bw
effect is much more powerful in that it is at a distance and greater
reduction, but can help break the back of a tough target.
(3) Increase crit melee by 15%
(4) Four different melee strikes do more damage
(5) The automatic group buff that helps others do a little more damage,
an alternative to the armor or automatic heal, is a bit higher.
If yeh have any ideas for improvement or additions
here, let me know! Mah contact info can be found
on the sidebar link "Contact Dwooid".
Best Regahds,
Dwooid of Caledor