Zealous Benediction

10e 3/4 cast 4 recharge

Heal target ally for 180 (15 prot). If that ally was below 50% hp you gain 10 energy.


This skill has blown my mind. With your divine favor you get a 200+ heal with a good cast time. I usually save it till I get below 50% for the energy gain. The low recharge makes this a very good skill.

This skill is pure anti spike imo. In most spikes by the time you get a 3/4 cast off the target is below 50%.

You can also use this on a /mo because its in the prot line.

This skill however does have some bugs. First off you cannot target yourself as the description implies. I don't know if that's on purpose (most likely for balance) but the skill description needs to be fixed.

Secondly it doesn't always give the energy return when the target is right below 50%.

Too conditional IMO, I'm not a fan of this skill. It's very bad to rely on a 3/4 second cast for anti-spike, have you ever tried to catch a good spike with WoH? :P Why would you want to bring an elite just to counter bad spikes? This is just Heal Other really, except it's elite, and has a small chance of being free.

There are much better options IMO.

I learned to use it in a pinch and spikes. Other than that I use my other skills for healing. This skill is probly the best energy skill on the game for monks. Possible 10 energy every 4 seconds. Most of the time my target was at full hp after 1 use.

I like it. I can see using this in gvg to replace mantra of recall on a boon prot.

I believe the skill to be overpowered. The healing is unconditional, so at the *very worst* it's another copy of Heal Other. However, with smart usage of this skill you have a *free* 200+ heal. I suspect the conditional energy gain will be nerfed to ~5e, to make it more in line with WoH. You will then have two choices: WoH is always 5e, but the heal is conditional, whereas ZB always heals for the same amount, but the energy is conditional.

I suspect that ZB was placed in the Prot attribute line to prevent it from benefiting from the new faster cast enchantments in the healing line. However, having it in the prot line fits a bit too well, considering that you can now go full prot while *still* retaining a 200-point heal.

Edit: One other thing: you can't heal against spikes with a 3/4s skill, unless the spike team is terrible.

Well, if they reduced the conditional energy then WoH would be superior. The conditional heal on WoH is only needed if the target is below 50% hp--otherwise it would likely be overhealing. Without the conditional, WoH is still a effective spam heal.

With ZB, the conditional energy is necessary to make it really efficient. If you only gained 5e if target is below 50%, it would essentially heal for the same as WoH (not counting overhealing) but have a chance of costing twice as much. There would be no reason to use it.

this skill is pretty good. true, it is not enough to save a good spike. and i don't really see it being used with boon as its already good enough a heal, and boon requires powerful consistent energy managment that ZB just wont quite cut it. i could see it becoming part of the metagame though, matching the effectiveness of the blessed light monk.

it is kinda odd for this spell to be classified as prot, as it appears to be more of a heal/divine skill, but im glad it is the way it is

Quote: Originally Posted by sno

How hard is it to catch a target under 50% after all? That's what this skill is about. The main point of this skill it that it rewards precision and that's priceless. A good player will get huge results (it's 0 cost healing after all) while a mediocre one will hate it. This side of the skill will make it very attractive to players - having it on the skill bar will say "Look - I'm a good enough monk to use this !"

I could even see it arcane echoed for continuous spamming against a heavy degen team for instance (or any pressure build) - 200 costless HP each 2 secs...

As for spike builds....you are prot after all.... you can still do the boon/rof or boon/PS thing. Or even pack a low specced infuse after all.

One of the major downsides though is that (as someone said on these forums - not sure) it's not usable on self. Woh wasn't either though....

I foresee a bright future for this skill in the metagame. People will see it used perfectly on GWTV, they will pack it and hate it

Problem is, a target can easily go from <50% to 0% in less than 3/4 second. Which means in order to satisfy the conditional, you have to rely somewhat on luck as far as healing the target below 50% hp but before they die. Precision only comes into play in PvE or under general pressure.

BTW: we are talking about this skill in the PvE area So a spike refering to those nasty down to the 1/10th of a second spikes you get from NPCs

just had a thought... would work nice with a bonder as it almost takes no energy to cast (10e to activate) and if you are bonding, you'd expect the spiking to be much less lethal

^^
/agree

This would be a very nice skill for a bonder. But I really don't see this getting much use...who is actually going to risk someone getting lucky and spiking an ally from >50% hp to dead before they can target and heal?

@Lews, it's the *MONK* forum, not PvP or PvE specific...otherwise we'd have 2 separate monk forums.

It's elite because it's one of the two Prot skills that actually *heal* unconditionally(the other is Shield of Regeneration).

Reply to Effygy

"Problem is, a target can easily go from <50% to 0% in less than 3/4 second. Which means in order to satisfy the conditional, you have to rely somewhat on luck as far as healing the target below 50% hp but before they die. Precision only comes into play in PvE or under general pressure."

According to this logic, WoH is pointless too in PvP (yea, I know it actually is but people still take it sometimes)

While going from 50% to 0% can be fast in spikes, there are many cases when it's less fast. Pressure damage builds mostly. And then, ZB cannot be matched.

As I said before - you are a prot. You have other optiions to disrupt your foe's spike: guardian, RoF, PS, Aegis etc. And a low specced infuse can also be taken as backup for particular nasty spikes.

Bottom line is you can take this as elite and use it as main healing skill, except for good spikes. And for those you have the rest of the skill bar available. A PvP monk needs flexibility and this elite allows it.

I suppose that's true, although it's not something I think I'd use.

Why not just use Reversal of Fortune/Protective Spirit to catch the spike and keep the target alive and then use this as a follow up spell to heal? You might even be able to get away without using Boon especially with the healing power of this and Gift of Health. However, if it's supposed to be a heal other, then I'm less inclined to use such a set up.

Not thrilled about using skills that encourage you to allow some damage on allies. I prefer to do minor heals, but keep everyone at solid health. Skills that encourage you to allow an ally to get under 50% are even worse, unless they are 1/4 cast and fast recharge.

Its not anti Spike, Its anti Pressure. Infuse is anti spike. ZB is a free heal against any high DPS pressure build, because against pressure you can use prot prayers to stop a target from dying when they are around 60% health, then use ZB. Use ROF-ZB, not just ZB. Thats what makes this a good skill, and anyone who says it isnt a good skill doesnt know how to use it.


That being said, I think ZB is only moderatly overpowered. It needs a nerf, But only a small one. Like increasing the cast time from .75 to 1.0, or decreasing the energy bonus to 33%.

Quote: Originally Posted by Master Ketsu

id prefer the soound of a 33% but im wishing i woudlent happen as when normal puging it works wonders.