Larian Studios Forums Dragon Commander Dragon Commander - Beta Let's all (respectfully) argue about game balance

EDIT: This has now been changed! Purifying Flames has been changed to a Tier 1 Spell and the cost reduced to 5 (and it got a 50% buff to healing. Thanks, Larian!


(Campaign) Purifying Flames too Research point cost expensive for value received

The Dragon has three healing skills: Pillar of restoration, Mass Restoration, and Purifying Flames. The first two are priced about right at 15 Research points each. The first is a long-lasting fire and forget AoE heal. The second is an instant AoE heal.

Purifying Flames is priced at 20 Research points, you need to manually aim it, its duration is shorter than pillar of Restoration, and each shot only heals for as much as Pillar of Restoration does per second. It’s the worst of the three you can use during combat. It requires precision aim, you’re much more vulnerable to all kinds of attacks (since it’s not a fire and forget spell), and it won’t save any units under any but the most minimal incoming fire.

Suggested Improvement: There are two directions you can go with it:

a) Front-line Combat:
Keep the research point cost, but improve the power of the skill so that it can use used on the front lines of combat – increase the amount it heals per shot to something like 400 or more, so it can prop up units under heavy fire.

b) Between-battle healing:
Keep the skill the way it is, but lower the amount of research points it needs to 5 (or 10 at most), and have its role be to top up injured units between fighting, or those who can’t be reached easily by a Shaman (air and water units), or to clear the effects of say, Chemical Warfare (which the AI loves to use all the time).

EDIT: If you were to make it a 5 Research Points spell, it could allow for more varied play, some people might get that first instead of getting Shamans, and spend the spare research points on different Units to delay getting Shamans.

I just tried a match where I skipped Shamans and rushed to Devastators and Siege mode, and I wished that I had Purifying Flames, except that it cost too many points.