Glyph of Holy Light nerfed
by Eliah Hecht 
Jan 22nd 2009 at 4:00PM
Yesterday, the healing forums were flooded with complaints largely by Priests alleging that the new 3.0.8 version of the Paladin Glyph of Holy Light was completely overpowered and made Paladins into group healers, shoe-horning them into a niche recently left half-vacant by our Circle of Healing nerf. Such complainants will presumably be happy to hear that the glyph is being hotfixed, reducing the range from 20 yards to 8.
Ghostcrawler calls the glyph "vastly overpowered," and goes on in a later post to give a bit more information. Like most changes, this was not done in response to QQ; as it turns out, the glyph was just overpowered. He also states that [major] glyphs are meant to be "about on par with passive talents" in terms of their power, which is in line with what I've been observing (maybe a few percent increase in damage/healing/mitigation per glyph, for the good ones).
At any rate, sorry to my Holy Paladin friends; I guess this one was just too good to last. I'm still jealous of your everlasting mana.
Filed under: Paladin, Inscription
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Aramaethien Jan 22nd 2009 4:10PM
After my healing numbers last night through our one night naxx clear. This changes doesn't surprize me.
Manatank Jan 22nd 2009 5:00PM
Our top healer (druid) before the patch continued to be our top healer after the patch on nearly every boss fight and trash pull. To all of the holy paladins that were convinced that they would be able to top her after the WG nerf... Ha, you couldn't beat her even when GC thought you were overpowered. Skill will always trump the class.
marj Jan 22nd 2009 6:31PM
You should know that "topping the healing meters" does not mean you have skill.
Beatphreek Jan 22nd 2009 9:35PM
@Manatank,
Were ALL the pally's that play healers present in your raid last night or just the same ones that are always in your guild run? I was in Naxx... but I don't think you or your Druid was...
I submit that your argument is based squarely in ridiculousness...
curtisvollmar Jan 22nd 2009 4:11PM
Nachos, Lemonheads, my dad's boat
Jason Jan 22nd 2009 4:12PM
Oh well, I can miss what I never had. 8 yards is better than the 5 yards it was pre-patch.
I'm usually Holy, but had to respec Prot to OT Naxx 10 last night and replaced my glyphs accordingly. I'm back to Holy tonight for a Sartherion 25 raid which we're doing allied with another guild.
Kassu Jan 22nd 2009 4:14PM
Wow.
Something HAS to be broken in the dev's noggins...
Conversation at the dev's roundtable.
"Hey, lets nerf CoH, it's clearly too good, and, you know, priests are waay too OP anyways."
"K, sounds like a plan. Btw, I think palas could use more AOE healing power."
"Well, umm, we can't make a whole new spell, that would take too much effort."
"I KNOW! Lets just make a glyph that turns it into a supercharged CoH and hope that nobody notices."
Taladan Jan 22nd 2009 4:30PM
"Oh, people are complaining about that glyph. Should we bring CoH back?"
"Na, it's a Paladin glyph. Nerf it."
uncaringbear Jan 22nd 2009 6:03PM
"Maybe we should put this new glyph through some rounds of testing before we include it in the next release."
"Nah, that takes way too long to do"
"Yeh you're right. After I finish up this glyph code, I gotta go work on that Guiatr Hero expansion"
Stone_Rhino Jan 22nd 2009 6:35PM
CoH: Instant, smart heal. Heals several people for 6k+
Holy Light w Glyph: 2.5 sec cast, not smart, heals several people for 1.5k.
Tell ya what. Ill trade you my "spammable" 1k heal for your 6 second CD smart heal and we can both be happy.
20 yards was a bit much, but it was designed for pallies in 5 mans who are trying to keep the tank and group alive with nothing but single target heals with cast times.
Thetanklife Jan 22nd 2009 7:17PM
Ran some numbers. My priest with 2442 spellpower self buffed/flasked at the time. Along with all talents increasing the healing on CoH.
Average Coh Heal - 2100
Average Crit Coh heal - 3200
I've seen the holy light glyph, crit for over 3k as well, on a paladin with significantly less spellpower of his own, around 2100 with a flask/selfbuffs.
A major glyph should not be comparable, and able to do significantly more raw healing during a raid than a deep tree talent.
zappo Jan 22nd 2009 4:14PM
Meh, at least it still works. Just be glad they didn't turn it into a "smart heal" first, then decide it made the game too easy and nerf it into worthlessness.
Tumleren Jan 22nd 2009 5:25PM
Are you referring to...
No...
Nah, couldn't be
Haarits Jan 22nd 2009 4:14PM
Well, at least it won't hurt Holy Pallys too much on Loken. Our H-P loves the 'stack-up & heal-through-novas' method of downing him, so 8 yards is still plenty for that.
Taladan Jan 22nd 2009 4:29PM
People QQ about paladins and the hotfix comes really fast. All the time.
Procris Jan 22nd 2009 4:53PM
I was thinking the same. 20yards is probably too strong but this seems like a weak change.
Tumleren Jan 22nd 2009 5:28PM
Needed, but too much.
I think a 10-12 yd increase would've been more appropriate. It doesn't require people to group around, but doesn't go way too far out either.
Oh well
Angus Jan 22nd 2009 7:00PM
I noticed that too.
If you are a paladin and something is considered overpowered, expect a hotfix to nerf you.
If you are a hunter pumping out 25% more damage than the closest person can think about managing, you got a month or so before you get hit.
Oriflame Jan 22nd 2009 4:34PM
This was live in the PTR for how long, and it took them, what 2 days in real play to decide it needed a hot fix nerf? Blizzard needs to get their act together and test in the test realm. I'm just not interested in playing a game where the rules change every day, and every time you get something good or neat (rocket boots for engineers, aoe fear for death knights, splash healing that actually works for pallies) it gets broken.
I'm really sick of this.
Zoop Jan 22nd 2009 4:52PM
The reason this was let through is because no one raids on the PTR unless it's a content patch. No one raided, no one caught that this was doing 50% of Pallies healing, pretty simple.