After a couple hours of getting blown off ledges by tornados, healing through increasingly acidic rain, and staring into Al’Akir’s windy grundle, we downed that gusty elemental god. And what dropped?
Stormwake, the Tempest’s Reach of the Undertow.
Best-in-slot holy paladin mainhand.
I couldn’t wait to equip that beautiful blade, but it is, of course, sacrilege to equip an item that isn’t fully enchanted. The guildies are just as excited for me: “Grats Art! Gonna throw Power Torrent on that puppy?”
“Nope. Heartsong.”
“Aww! Boo! You’re boring, you n00b! Go die in a murloc bonfire!”
Well, they didn’t say that. But if they did, it might be reflective of my own inner turmoil.
As awesome as the shifting orange and purple flames of Power Torrent are, no matter how many top-end healers rock it, regardless of its overwhelming badass factor, there has only ever been one mainhand healing enchant for me. Give me that cool blue glow, Heartsong.
Here’s why:
Consistency, reliability, and flexibility. When Heartsong procs (which it frequently does, with an uptime of over 50%) you gain spirit, which gives you more mana. Mana that you can use whenever and however you want.
Being a good healer isn’t just watching health bars and clicking the ones that FLASH RED BECAUSE SOMEBODY IS GOING TO DIE. It’s anticipating periods of heavy damage intake and preparing accordingly, conserving mana through the relatively peaceful gaps. You know, that whole “situational awareness” thing. Off-tank about to eat a Chimaeron Double Attack? Have your slow, big heal ready to finish as soon as the attack lands. Who cares if it’s expensive, you have extra mana from Heartsong!
Let’s dispel another healing myth while we’re at it. You can never, ever have too much mana. If you end a fight with a ton of mana, heal harder! Use bigger, faster heals. Take pressure off of your fellow healers, or even better, use fewer healers and down bosses faster. Everybody likes more loot (or at least shards, this late in a patch). Take Heartsong’s mana and put it to good use.
Then there’s Power Torrent. It’s like that guildy who is awesomely skilled, knowledgeable, and friendly, but who can only raid for half an hour every other week. Tempting and full of potential, but ultimately disappointing. It has a 45 second internal cooldown compared to Heartsong’s 20, and the proc only lasts 12 seconds for an average uptime of around 25%.
Looking back at that Chimaeron example, what will probably happen with Power Torrent? It will proc when you don’t need it, when you only need to heal for 10k hp at a time. You might as well not have an enchant at that point.
Tories (a not-too-clever name that I just came up with for Power Torrent healers) might point to their enchant’s tendency to help with mana as well as throughput. That is, because Power Torrent increases your overall mana pool, abilities that regenerate percentages of your overall mana pool are more effective. However, my argument is the same: it probably won’t be there when you need it. Are you really going to delay your Divine Plea 30 seconds for an extra ~1300 mana? What if that means you short yourself one Plea ( ~18k mana) at the end of the fight?
That said, there is no denying the importance of Intellect for healers. Maybe the Tories have it right. At the end of the day, healing is the one role where comfort and preference trump being “correct” in terms of playstyle. I may just throw Power Torrent on Stormwake and see what all of the fuss is about.
Plus, it will match my cape, and that’s what is really important, right?