If I may explain.
We have defense stat, with actual numbers. For example, let's say my Priest has a defense stat of 300 with damage reduction of 10% (not accurate, just for argument's sake). Angelus would not multiply the damage reduction by 9% (1.09 * 10). It would add 9% to the defense stat (1.09 * 300). As you probably know, the defense stat is used to calculate the damage reduction. So you can imagine how well this would scale no? If a tank had say, 750 defense, with Angelus their new defense would be 1.09 * 750. As for how much this affects the damage reduction percentage, I cannot say as I have not done the proper calculations nor do I know to what capacity the defense stat affects the damage reduction percentage. However, based on my assumption above, I believe Angelus is a skill that scales well and it was a cheap investment. Now the actual effectiveness is pretty bad for most classes (I recall a test with my guildmate netted him about 1% more damage reduction on a well geared Priest) however it's something and it's mostly for the tank.
For your information, all stat convert directly to a percentage value with the formula value*0.228= %, as stated by synesthetic in his stats guide
Therefore, an increase in 9% to defense stat is exactly the same as increase in 9% of damage reduction. As he explain, with a knight tank and 50% base def, they will gain 4.5% def with Angelus lv 3, giving 54.5% reduction instead of 50%. You should be able to see how poorly the skill point scale for the investment. Given a typical boss mob hit for around 2500 damage per swing before reduction, a tank with 50% def will go from 1250 to 1137.5 damage per swing for 10 sec for net reduction of 112.5 per sec, or 1125 damage overall. Since you can use once every 2 min, you're reducing damage by ~10dmg/sec. Even if they use a spell that hit for 10k before reduction, it will only reduce damage by 450. In a best case scenario, you use right before a ~8k aoe, and assume the 8 non-tank have a generous 20% armor (most caster class have closer to 15%), and two tanks have 50%. Then with lv 3 Angelus, you have reduced 6400 dmg per nontank and 4000 per tank to 6256 and 3640 for total damage reduction of 144 per nontank and 360 per tank, total damage reduction of 1872 + the extra hits on tank (though boss normally stops attack before casting aoe). Then you have reduced ~3k dmg overall with that one spell.
If you invest those 2 point into Sacrament or Archangel, you will heal for 4% more all the time, or 10% more for 30s every 2 min (before vigor). To use my priest as example, with raid buff, around 3k matk and 35% crit: 4% more healing all the time is +120 matk. That means my Renovatio tick for 27 more per 2s, heal can do 52 more per cast, highness heal 71.68 more per cast and sanctuary (lv 1) 66 per 2s.
If you are focus on tank heal, you will use HH on cd, renov when it runs out, and heal otherwise, with 1 cast of sanctuary per 2 min for AoE. Since renov last 12 sec and HH has 10s cd, with no vigor (though we have ~17% vigor in full colo equips), you will cast:
10 renov (1s animation) = 10s cast time 60 ticks, total gain 1620 hp
12 HH(2s animation) = 24s cast time, total gain 860 hp
1 sanc(10 sec channel) = 10s cast time, total gain 330 hp
2 aqua benedicta (3s animation) = 6s cast time, no hp gain
remainder is regular heal, 1s cast, 1s animation time = 35 extra heals, 70s cast time, 3640 more hp
total cast time: 2 min, total hp gain: 6450 hp, or more than double how much you have reduced with Angelus for same 2 points investment into Sacrament instead. Note that this is assuming 0% vigor, haste, crit, or aspersio use. With vigor and haste, heal increase will do much more. Most people will use 1 aspersio for Sanc for 15% hp buff, but the other 5 every 2 min can be use on either HH or Heal, depending on which is more critical. This will boost more.
With 35% crit like my priest, HH and Heal average heal goes up by 35% more, brings you up to 8025 extra heal. Even if you only renovatio the raid and never use heal (do not do this, people will die!!), instead of 35 extra heal, you will have 10x renovatio ticking on full raid for full 2 min, yielding 16200 extra hp healed.
Now we can look at Archangel
10% more for 30s every 2 min yield 300 matk
Renovatio tick for 66 more per 2s, Heal 129 more per cast, HH 192 per cast, Sanctuary(lv1) 177 per 2s.
In order to maximize AA usage, you will normally AA, immediately Renovatio, HH, Heal until HH/Reno is off cd/runs out, and Sanc at the very end since Sanc counts matk at the time of cast and not during each tick.
That means your rotation will be: Reno, HH, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, HH, Reno, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, HH, Reno, Heal, Heal, Sanc if you have no vigor. However, realistically, you will AA, Renov, Asp, then Sanc immediately to boost Sanc power if you are lv 1 sanc instead of lv 4/5, so you will waste much of the heal time. Then your rotation will be:
Reno, Sanc, HH, Reno, Heal, Heal, Heal, Heal, HH, Reno, Heal, Heal, Reno (to reset Reno before AA runs out so it gets boost)
4 Reno @ 6 tick each = 24 extra tick*66 heal=1584 hp
2 HH = 384 hp
5 tick of sanc = 885 hp
6 heal = 774 hp
total: 3627 hp, ~ 20% more healing done than damage reduction from best case scenario for Angelus. Again, if you use more reno on raid member taking damage instead of heal, you will heal much more.
In ideal rotation for AA, you will do 3 Reno = 1188 hp, 3 HH = 576 hp, 10 heal = 1290 hp, sanc=885 hp, for total of 3939 hp
Again, this is 0% vigor,haste,crit,aspersio usage.
In typical case for Angelus (3 pts), you reduce only ~1200 dmg compared to 3600+ extra damage healed from Archangel and 6400+ from Sacrament. Now most priest will have at least 1 point if they go for Archangel tree, so it's really closer to 800 damage reduction or 2000 in best case scenario.
Now personally, I would say as FS, you should already have Sacrament max along with all heal spell, except Coluseo/Sanctuary. The choices are really among Coluseo, Sanctuary, and Suffragium.
Archangel I consider required to be max since you can control when you need that burst heal (boss enrage, use when you need to catch up or such..)
Among the 3 previous spells, it's down to playstyle choice. Suffragium I don't find necessary but other priest say the 8% faster cast on their heal is noticeable. Sanctuary lv 4/5 vs 1 come down to whether you use it as HP booster or to quickly top others off so you can go back to heal tank sooner after AoE. Coluseo can be lifesaver, but I think it's really emergency spell and if you have more than one every 5 min, you should rethink how you are healing.
Edited by AngeChan, 19 July 2013 - 01:10 AM.