Of all the classes as Healers, I believe dragon knight is behind others by a wide margin.
* The lack class identity
* The overlap with tank utility often times
* The shields between tank/ healer dks overlap
* Shattering rocks, could be such a fun skill and really make the dk identity of healer who guards allies by having emeny heal you instead of damage you but this doesn't work well in pve fights since most mobs are immune when it could be useful
Suggestions
* Give Cinder storm a synergy and increase range, but decrease the snare so it less the further you to the edge of the radius of the skill
* Take volcano and rocky identity and give cinder storm a more fitting animation
* Have minor and major shields where minor only reduces a percent of the damage.
* Cauterize have it heal the lowest ally near the skill or something. Make it less random
* Can obsidian share do a knock down instead of stun? This would give it flavor of stopping enemies from hurting allieswith rocks.
I really feel DK healers could be awesome with a few changes.
ReplyDeleteObsidian Shard is our strong burst heal. However, it has some drawbacks. It is very expensive for only healing one ally for less than Breath of Life on your main person healed. I'd rather Obsidian Shard be cast on your target a la Warden Nature's Grasp, or just cast to affect the lowest health ally in front of you like Breath of Life, and then from your ally it shoots a shard towards an enemy that stuns/knocks down, allowing it to be useful as a burst heal even if there are no enemies to target. I feel like the cost of this skill is high in situations where the stun isn't useful (most boss fights, PVP when the target is immune), causing this skill to be expensive for a single target burst heal with very minor damage. It'd be really cool if it also left a small shield on the ally healed (it is called obsidian shard, makes sense some obsidian would stay to protect you), something to make it feel like the cost is more "fair" considering DK sustain issues as is.
For Cinder Storm: A synergy would be nice, a 6m radius would be cool, but that is a pipe dream. What would a synergy for this skill do? "An ally can activate a synergy that gives a shield that absorbs a small amount of damage. If this is broken, the ally erupts in flames, dealing damage to nearby enemies?" It certainly needs something, because the current effect of "heals for more" for the morph is a lazy morph.
For Shattering Rocks, I've thought of how this can work. Maybe make it something like "Stoneskin: Turns your allies skin to stone. The next enemy to attack an ally with Stoneskin within 4 seconds heals the ally for X, and stuns the enemy" This basically keeps the functionality, but gives you more control over its use, and keeps it useful as a damage mitigation even if the enemy is immune to stuns.
Also, igneous/fragmented shields should not overwrite each other, instead, if the shield you cast is less than that of a tanks, just leave the tank shield instead while still giving you major mending. It'd be nice if it scaled off of your highest stats instead of just health.
Finally, Cauterize has no benefit from any of the passives in Ardent Flame. It would be nice if some, like Searing Heat, also affected Cauterize.
These are just fun thoughts. I hope one day Dragon Knight's become good healers. They have great tools for it, especially as DK tanks aren't always a given anymore, so things that used to be guaranteed from your tank are no longer guaranteed, with good tanks in Warden and it seems Necro, and NB, Temp, and Sorc all having tanking potential too now.
Hope you Enjoy Dragonhold changes for Dragon Knights. Its not everything but shard will be better and some sustain is coming.
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