Temellin
*Gnomalicious*
Channel Essence is not that great of a spell, I mean, maybe a few people will enjoy it. However, based on what myself and other necromancers that I have talked with say, it does not seem like something that people like, or will use. The past seven necromancer Life Flow spells are extremely rarely used (Usually as a joke to see how good they are, then quickly discarded due to the fact that Hatfield necromancers don't have that much hp to work with). Looking at it from one life flow (Wraithbond) upgrading to a new life flow: Wraithbond costs 10mana (TEN!) and heals for a total of 780 (195/tick over 4 ticks), has no recast time, and has the same casting time as Channel essence. This lets you heal someone for about 78 hit points per one point of your mana. Channel essence costs 300mana (THREE HUNDRED) and heals someone for a total of 1750 (350/tick over 5 ticks), has a recast time of 30, and has the same casting time as Wraithbond (And an additional 400 range). This allows the necromancer to heal someone for about 5.8 hit points per one point of mana.
I understand that the gimmick of this spell is it's huge range and that you do not generate any aggro by casting it; That it is intended to be used to heal monks during pulls, however this is impractical for a few reasons. First of all, the amount healed is not effected by tomes, elemental focii, or a focus effect. This results in there being a cap on the amount you can heal the monk for (only 1750hp) and 'ikisith level' monks have about 9600-10000hp when they are all buffed up and pulling. Secondly this spell can only be used to heal a monk who is pulling in one of two ways: As they are doing the pull and getting hit, or as they are FDd and waiting on stuff to path back/split.
Looking at the first example, as they are pulling and taking damage, it becomes apparent that 350hp a tick is not enough to make an impact. If the monk is in a situation where they are taking a lot of damage and need a heal they aren't going to say "Holy crap, give me that 350hp!" they are going to hit mend and feign death. So the spell lacks a use in this situation due to the low power of the heal. Now the second situation, healing a monk who is FD and needs some HP, also has a problem. Since the Life Flow is spread out over 5 ticks by the time the 'ikisith level' monk has gotten /maybe/ 18% of their health back the mobs are most likely reset and the monk is perfectly capable of standing up and getting a better heal that doesn't result in someone else needing a heal.
Now the third reason why this spell is not useful and impractical is that this situation can already be accomplished by the necromancer for far less mana spent and without killing themselves as fast by simply casting the ten mana life flow onto the monk and then FDing, or in a less mana efficient manner by casting the direct heal life flow (315 hp instanly, 100mana cost, 2sec casting time (With CSI) and no recast) and FDing. If a necromancer does it this way they can heal the monk faster which is better in a "I want to get back to splitting this ASAP" situation.
So, because of the above reasons I suggest that this spell get changed to something that is at least marginally useful to necromancers. In a perfect world I would love to see it changed to something that will help out necromancer pets, since they are kind of at the bottom of the totem pole in the survivability area. Beastlords and Mages (You know, the other two pet classes) get shiny new pets, why not give necromancers something like an upgraded pet haste spell that has some saves and +hp on it. Or just a flat pet saves/hp buff, or something! If you don't want to go in that direction then why not give the necromancers an upgraded version of "Mend/Renew" bones. That's the pet direct heal line that necromancers get a level 8 and 29, even if it is not that great of an upgrade a new direct pet heal would do wonders for helping necromancer pets survive and that spell would not be something that causes any sort of horrible imbalance to come about.
I'm not saying I want something as good as what some of the other classes got; I just want something that would actually be used by necromancers.
I understand that the gimmick of this spell is it's huge range and that you do not generate any aggro by casting it; That it is intended to be used to heal monks during pulls, however this is impractical for a few reasons. First of all, the amount healed is not effected by tomes, elemental focii, or a focus effect. This results in there being a cap on the amount you can heal the monk for (only 1750hp) and 'ikisith level' monks have about 9600-10000hp when they are all buffed up and pulling. Secondly this spell can only be used to heal a monk who is pulling in one of two ways: As they are doing the pull and getting hit, or as they are FDd and waiting on stuff to path back/split.
Looking at the first example, as they are pulling and taking damage, it becomes apparent that 350hp a tick is not enough to make an impact. If the monk is in a situation where they are taking a lot of damage and need a heal they aren't going to say "Holy crap, give me that 350hp!" they are going to hit mend and feign death. So the spell lacks a use in this situation due to the low power of the heal. Now the second situation, healing a monk who is FD and needs some HP, also has a problem. Since the Life Flow is spread out over 5 ticks by the time the 'ikisith level' monk has gotten /maybe/ 18% of their health back the mobs are most likely reset and the monk is perfectly capable of standing up and getting a better heal that doesn't result in someone else needing a heal.
Now the third reason why this spell is not useful and impractical is that this situation can already be accomplished by the necromancer for far less mana spent and without killing themselves as fast by simply casting the ten mana life flow onto the monk and then FDing, or in a less mana efficient manner by casting the direct heal life flow (315 hp instanly, 100mana cost, 2sec casting time (With CSI) and no recast) and FDing. If a necromancer does it this way they can heal the monk faster which is better in a "I want to get back to splitting this ASAP" situation.
So, because of the above reasons I suggest that this spell get changed to something that is at least marginally useful to necromancers. In a perfect world I would love to see it changed to something that will help out necromancer pets, since they are kind of at the bottom of the totem pole in the survivability area. Beastlords and Mages (You know, the other two pet classes) get shiny new pets, why not give necromancers something like an upgraded pet haste spell that has some saves and +hp on it. Or just a flat pet saves/hp buff, or something! If you don't want to go in that direction then why not give the necromancers an upgraded version of "Mend/Renew" bones. That's the pet direct heal line that necromancers get a level 8 and 29, even if it is not that great of an upgrade a new direct pet heal would do wonders for helping necromancer pets survive and that spell would not be something that causes any sort of horrible imbalance to come about.
I'm not saying I want something as good as what some of the other classes got; I just want something that would actually be used by necromancers.
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I think it has a better case than some of the other spells to! (Shaman hot. c'mon.)
