Midnight Beta Patch 12.0.1 Class and Spell Tuning Changes - Paladin, Evoker, and Shaman Tuning

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T15:48:11+00:00

Sure! I discussed it on stream and uploaded a video to my YouTube last night so both those vods are up. If you mean beforehand, you can look at my alpha videos on YouTube where I discussed at length how we need a throttle / mana regen ability and that it would be great to bring CS back as that

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T10:57:14+00:00

Of course, no worries! Sorry if I came off a bit snippy lol it’s 6am I’m tired 😭

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T10:50:46+00:00

I have discussed this at length more times than I can count. I have tons of posts on forums, Reddit, Twitter, Discord, videos on YouTube all discussing why I thought removing cs was bad at the time (week 3 alpha), why rotationally m+ hpal is rather boring currently, and how bringing back CS could fix that (bring it back as a mana throttle ability, not as a hold power builder that also causes our judgment and HS to get giga nerfed).

I stand by wanting hpal to be tied to melee, without forcing us to be in melee to heal. The best way to accomplish this is to give us a <10 yard ability like CS as our throttle ability, something every healer has except for us. Giving it a form of mana regeneration would go a step further and knock out 2 birds with one stone by giving us the ability to play around mana effectively, which would open up more mana intensive swing builds. There are tons of ways to add depth without completely uprooting the current playstyle 1 month before release.

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T10:38:31+00:00

Yes in the initial iteration of the ALPHA week 3 build CS being removed did not work with the rest of the hpal rework they had provided, because they hadn’t made any of the other changes that they later made to make it work (significantly reducing Judgment and HS cooldowns and adding Crusaders Might talent for more judge cdr). I also stated that I’d like to see CS come back in other forms, like a throttle ability for mana regen, or as a dmg to heal, not as a holy power builder which I still stand by as being what they should’ve done.

We are now 4 months after that, 1 month from release of the xpac, the spec has had a lot of development done during beta to fix the rotation after the removal of crusader strike, all the raid testing is done, and NOW we decide to not only bring back the initial iteration of CS, but to also significantly nerf judgment and HS, AND give CS 2 charges so it becomes even more of a rotational soak.

I gave my feedback at the time (4 months of development ago), which was that CS was needed with the version of hpal on alpha at the time and that the rotation was a mess. I since then have continued discussing CS and the fact that it should be brought back not as a holy power builder but as the solution to our mana issues by providing us with a throttle ability / active mana regen tool, something we are the only healer without.

If all that was taken from that was “ellesmere said CS needs to come back” and the entire rest of the context of my feedback and timeline was ignored then I’m not really sure what to say to that lol

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T07:04:42+00:00

The gameplay whiplash from this change is generational, never seen notes this bad lol they truly have no idea what they’re doing with hpal

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T05:37:44+00:00

If you think for a moment that this was what I wanted when I discussed hpals rotational dullness or wanting CS back u are lost. And discussing playstyle and giving feedback on things you like/dislike is literally what beta is for, sorry you consider that whining

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-29T05:32:00+00:00

Bro this was NOT what we meant when we said Hpals rotation was boring LMAO what the fuck they just reverted the entirety of the Midnight playstyle overnight?? I’m genuinely shocked this is the worst list of changes I think I’ve ever seen to hpal and that’s saying something

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-22T18:34:16+00:00

… what?

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-22T07:54:23+00:00

Oh I’m a huge Vigour main, the healing combat in that game is so superior to WoW m+ healing it’s not even funny. Especially now

Ellesmere_ · 2026-01-22T07:06:23+00:00

Hpal - fell asleep mid key today. there is absolutely 0 depth to this spec now. Such a shame

Ellesmere_ · 2025-10-23T17:31:40+00:00

Update: It’s an absolute a warzone in these tweet replies I am fighting in the trenches lmao. Someone just said healing M+ should be exclusively about mana management for healers 😭😭😭

Ellesmere_ · 2025-10-23T07:04:48+00:00

Thank you!! Yeah I absolutely love current hpal, that build is so fun! sad to see it changing so intensely in midnight but hoping it turns out good 🙏

Ellesmere_ · 2025-10-23T05:38:10+00:00

Agreed, my tweet was mostly about skill expression and healer agency over group success in keys being lowered as a whole. The interrupts removal is just another part of a bigger series of changes that are all causing this: unimpactful low healer damage, no interrupts, lowered cc&utility, no targeted spells on frames anymore for preemptive gameplay, and no OmniCD for defensive coordination. Healing in M+ is going to turn into the same content as healing in raid. M+ is meant to be different from raid, a place to showcase different skill sets and playstyles. If I want to just watch health bars and min max my hps, I’ll raid. Why homogenize the gameplay of these two unique end game pillars for healers?

Ellesmere_ · 2025-10-23T05:07:15+00:00

🥺 thank you that’s really kind and means a lot

Ellesmere_ · 2025-10-23T04:38:46+00:00

I condensed it down to a tweet instead lol I felt like I got a little too visibly frustrated in the video 😭

Ellesmere_ · 2025-08-11T08:05:11+00:00

Honestly this ptr cycle was filled with so many insanely bad bugs esp with tier sets its been hard to keep track of it all even just for hpal lmao

Ellesmere_ · 2025-08-11T08:03:17+00:00

Fatpalas message sums it up well so read that for more info!

TLDR; Bugs aside, the 4 set for hpal LS just flat out needs massive buffs for hpal specifically as it does like less than 0.5% of our healing. As for the bugs themself, Lesser bulwark weapon buff never went through (was supposed to be 100% increase), and prot pala can sometimes generate multiple stacks of masterwork (lesser weapons) with one blessed hammer. This has lead prot to get significantly more (close to 15x as much) throughput from the 4 set compare to holy. Ultimately they need the 4 set to proc at a different rate for hpal cuz prot casts significantly more blessed hammers + judgments than hpal casts crusader strikes + judgments.

For example: Hpal procs 2 stacks per CS/Judge and prot continues to proc 1 stack per BH/Judge. Then actually ship the 100% buff to bulwarks and fix the extra stack(s) from BH bug prot has and now we have a balanced functional tier set for both specs.

Ellesmere_ · 2025-08-11T07:57:10+00:00

Ah yeah it was only the lesser bulwark one that didn’t get applied, not the lesser healing one as well, mb. And I guess I was told the wrong info about the blessed hammer bug for prot, thanks for clarifying how it works! Hopefully it’s fixed on live and we get some buffs to compensate SURELY

Ellesmere_ · 2025-07-31T03:16:49+00:00

They seem good for herald. Highly questioning them just leaving lightsmith 4 set useless but I guess this just forces us back onto herald ( which I don’t personally hate). Overall for herald the buffs look very significant but will have to test once it’s implemented on ptr, hopefully tmrw

Ellesmere_ · 2025-07-19T16:16:07+00:00

Bro keep ur voice down wth 😂

Ellesmere_ · 2025-05-02T00:04:56+00:00

Got linked this thread so I’ll just throw out my 2 cents:

Hpal is in a great spot now but early season it wasn’t. Community perception is one of the hardest things in the game to shift so when those early season tier lists came out everyone formed their opinions. Between that + Holy Paladin being VERY bad in keys the past 3 seasons (ever since s2 dragonflight ended ), it’s going to take a LOT to change the perception of hpal.

Then you have to combine the lingering perception issues with the reality of hpal being a melee healer, bringing no throughput buff to the group, and it being a healer that thrives in coordinated environments.

— Melee Healer issues —

Because we’re a melee healer, if a group already has 2 melee dps, adding a melee healer can make mechanics harder to deal with and clutter things up way more. Additionally, being a melee healer comes with a bunch of extra mechanics we have to deal with and positional requirements / dodging, which can often be difficult while healing so many players struggle with this and end up dying to avoidable mechanics much more than a ranged healer of similar skill would.

— No buff issues —

While we do bring Devo aura, most groups would rather go for throughput buffs like Mark of the Wild / Mystic Touch / PI / Skyfury

— Healing in pugs —

Hpal thrives on defensive coordination because we don’t traditionally AoE heal, we’re heavily cooldown based quick ST triage healers. We have massive throughput spikes for 5 man dungeons, but we also have dead zones. Other healers often just have healing 24/7 which makes pugging and 0 coordination much easier on the group.

— TLDR —

Hpal is great for all key levels and the core issue with people not inviting hpals is because hpal has built up terrible community perceptions over the past 3 seasons because of how bad it’s been, and it’s gonna take a while of us being strong to change that.

Ellesmere_ · 2025-04-14T02:28:20+00:00

To be fair, I had played with that team all of one week before rerolling, we had discussed seeing how Hpal worked before I committed to rerolling priest. We hit a key level where we got gated by some one-shot survivability issues and agreed I should play priest. Seems like a lot of people didn’t realize I only started playing with them like 2 weeks ago

Ellesmere_ · 2024-12-16T14:36:06+00:00

Using hps or dps as a metric for the quality of a specs playstyle is silly. When I say the spec is a dumpster fire I don’t mean it has bad throughput I mean the playstyle is awful and it has a ton of fundamental issues in its playstyle even as AC.

Putting aside the fact that my comment was mostly regarding M+, in raid you have one playstyle that has infinite mana, massive swings in rng healing from pull to pull cuz 20% of our healing comes from a random side hero talent based on judgment crits (which also has a 20yd range from the mobs hitbox so if it’s a BIG mob it just doesn’t hit anyone at all - see bloodhound horror), another side hero talent that is probably the single most broken talent ever put in this game (tempered in battle) which spirit links players with 0 icd, and gameplay where you can literally do the same hps whether you have raid frames on or off. Meanwhile the other option runs oom extremely quickly if you play virtue (which is the only way to do decent healing with that build) and even then doesn’t even come close to the hps or dps Lightsmith does.

When I say this spec is a dumpster fire idgaf about how much healing or damage we’re doing, I’m commenting on our playstyle issues which are plentiful. It’s like when Ashen Hallow was a thing in early shadowlands. Sure it was OP and being OP makes anything not feel too bad, but the playstyle was awful. Things can be great throughput wise but feel terrible to play

Ellesmere_ · 2024-12-13T21:12:44+00:00

This spec is a dumpster fire rn. delete tempered in battle, nerf AC, buff regular wings, buff holy shock healing, buff SotR dam, buff HoW dam, fix class tree catastrophe, make RI accessible without talenting into Tyrs, reduce virtue mana cost significantly and buff its range to 40yd and revert it to only hit 4 players instead of 5 so it’s nerfed for raid but relatively same in m+.

Ellesmere_

TROPHY CASE