Val'anyr, an update.

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A quote from Bornakk (yes, it's long. You should still read it.):

"We have received many questions about how the proc works on Val’anyr, the Hammer of the Ancient Kings. While we originally intended for this effect to be a mystery, we realize that guilds now know what the tooltip on the proc says without necessarily knowing the details on how it works. This leads to situations where a healer may not know if assembling the hammer is worth it for them (hint: it is), and perhaps even worse, a misinformed leader may not think you deserve the hammer (hint: you do).

Players also wonder if the proc makes the item deserving of its legendary status given that the stat allocation is normal for items of its item level (Hint: it does).

The effect reads “Your healing spells have a chance to cause Blessing of Ancient Kings for 15 seconds allowing your heals to shield the target absorbing damage equal to 15% of the amount healed.”

The way this works is that when the proc happens (which is a 10% chance whenever a hot or direct spell heals, with a 45 sec internal cooldown) you gain a buff (the Blessing) on yourself. Now all of your heals for the next 15 sec cause an 8 sec damage shield. The shield stacks with itself. It includes healing done by subsequent ticks of existing hots on the target. Note that the spell has to actually heal, so hots ticking on a fully-healed target cannot cause the proc. However the shield is based on the size of the heal itself, not the amount healed – i.e. 100% overhealing will not proc the Blessing on the healer, but the shield itself includes overhealing once the Blessing is active. The shield can grow to a maximum size of 20,000 damage absorbed.

Example 1: A paladin casts Holy Light for 10K on the tank, which partially heals her. The Blessing procs, so the paladin’s Holy Light immediately causes a shield on the tank which will now absorb 1500 damage. The tank dodges the next two hits, so no damage is absorbed. The paladin then casts another heal for 8K, but only heals the tank for 600 before she is at full health. The shield is now at 2700 damage absorbed (1500 + 1200) for 8 sec.

Example 2: A druid casts Rejuv on the tank, healing her. The Blessing procs on the druid on the second tick. A shield is applied to the tank which absorbs 15% of the amount healed by that tick and each remaining tick of the Rejuv. If the druid also gets Lifebloom and Regrowth on the tank while the Blessing is up, then those ticks also contribute to the shield. If the shield goes down because the 8 sec duration expires or it absorbs that much damage, it can go up again as long as the Blessing lasts, which is 15 sec."

This 100% clears up a few things:

1. It works with overhealing. It won't proc off of a complete overheal, but once it *does* proc, the damage that the shields mitigate will stack with overheals. Awesome. =D

2. It works with hots. This was pretty much a given (I had been assuming it all along), otherwise Blizzard would die an ugly splintery death, and they knew it. Not only can it proc off hots, but each hot that ticks gives the target a shield, which increases as each tick hits. So if I have a 3 stack of LBs on the tank, a rejuv, and a regrowth, AND random LBs on random people and maybe some rejuvs, AND then hit a wild growth on the melee, which hits the tank, and then procs the buff on me, then all 15 or so of those people who have hots on them will get a shield the next time any of those hots on them tick. Meaning, within 1-3 seconds, depending on the hot. God, that's sweet.

3. Any type of heal on anyone with a shield will refresh the shield for another 15 seconds. So essentially, the shield can potentially last for 23 seconds, provided that you heal a person right as the blessing procs on you, and that person gets healed again right as your blessing buff expires. With an internal cooldown of 45 seconds (assuming the cooldown starts when the blessing begins), this means, at best, shields in the raid will have an uptime of over 50% in any encounter. After the 45 second internal cooldown is up, the blessing has a 10% chance to proc with each heal - and with LBs and WGs ticking every second throughout the raid, I think it's safe to say it will be "at best" - meaning every 45 seconds, shields will start to go out again.

The fact that any tick from any heal can proc a blessing on you after the internal cool down expires gives druid healers an "edge" over direct-heal healers (I say "edge" tentatively - the proc on this mace is equally amazing for all healers obviously better for paladins whatever.) All I'm saying is that it's more likely for paladin to take a good 10 seconds to get another proc, whereas druids could potentially get 10 ticks in one second on various people and get another proc immediately.

But remember, you should always give the mace to a healer who most deserves it, whether that be through raid attendance, helping the guild, awesome playing skillz, whatever.

(Of course I had to put that disclaimer in).

TL;DR: Blue just officially posted that Val'anyr will be awesome for any type of class, regardless of their particular style of healing.

I'm excited, aren't you?

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