Has always been regarded as an extra BIG heal within a given area... But thats not really what it is. Here is how World of Logs found out how the mechanics works. I strongly suggest all raiders read through this, because the effect is faaaaar from the effects that Tranq/Rallying Cry/DG and others give.
Spirit Link Totem
If you've noticed the special handling WoL has implemented for Spirit Link Totem's effects and are left wondering about the details, this post is for you! If you're left with questions after reading this, post or send me a PM on the forums. Alternatively, you can e-mail me at maihem [AT] worldoflogs.com.
Spirit Link?
With patch 4.1, the Spirit Link mechanic was introduced. For those not familiar with it: its main effect is that it equalizes the % of max HP for all party/raid members in a 10y radius every second for 6 seconds. To do so, it deals nature damage to those with high % of max HP, while healing those with lower % of HP. This damage/healing mechanic is where our story begins...
Damage, healing, friendly, hostile
World of Logs, being a combat log analysis tool, splits the events from the logs into several categories, like Damage/Healing Done/Taken, but also Friendly Fire (damage raid->raid) and Hostile Healing (healing raid->hostile). Spirit Link, its mechanic consisting of both damaging and healing raid members, was screwing up this categorization: Spirit Link's heals were counted as healing done (raid->raid), but its damage, which is the "source" of the healing, was counted as friendly fire. This distorts the statistics and reduces their usefulness, as Spirit Link's healing is not actual "healing done" in the sense that it adds to total raid health. Nor is its damage component actual "friendly fire" in the sense that it decreases total raid health. Instead, it reallocates health from some players to others, leaving the total raid health unchanged... or does it?
Quick fix, further issues
Assuming that Spirit Link's damage and healing should be equal -- after all, low-health players are healed for the amount high-health players are damaged for -- we decided to completely ignore Spirit Link events as a quick fix while researching the issue in more detail. Soon after implementing this change, we were notified that this assumption is false -- Spirit Link's damage can apparently be resisted as well as mitigated (by e.g. PW:Barrier), while its healing is unaffected. That meant we could not simply ignore Spirit Link altogether, but had to find a better way of dealing with the damage vs healing issue.
Final solution
After researching the details of Spirit Link and brainstorming on the problem at hand, we decided that what we really wanted was for WoL to show actual, net healing done. Historically, we've always tried to achieve this -- deducting overhealing from heal events and guesstimating/tracking shields and counting only absorbed amounts as healing are prime examples of this policy. For Spirit Link, specifically, we decided to classify its damage as negative healing, essentially subtracting it from its healing. This would leave us with the amount of HP that was actually added to the raid health pool, i.e. the net amount healed for. This solution is currently in place and seems to be working quite well.
Caveats
During testing of the final Spirit Link handling change, we discovered that, while Spirit Link may generate positive net healing, it can also lead to negative net healing. An example we came across showed one player (a tank) getting a major Spirit Link-sourced heal with overhealing. Since overhealing is not counted toward healing done (as it does not increase raid health), the total "effective healing" is lower than the damage done, generating a negative total healing amount. Note that this is working exactly as intended, as raid health is actually decreased by this instance of Spirit Link use.
Furthermore, the change has only been made to the aggregate views, i.e. the Analyze, Damage/Healing Done/Taken, Friendly Fire and Hostile Healing pages. Actor details pages are unaffected and will still show the raw damage/healing amounts for Spirit Link (though overheal is still deducted as usual). Keep this in mind when viewing Spirit Link effects.
Details
For those interested in the fine details of Spirit Link aggregation. The rules for calculating Spirit Link healing are as follows:
For type HEAL events: totalAmount - overhealAmount
For type DAMAGE events: -1 * (totalAmount + absorbAmount)
For type MISS/ABSORB (i.e. damage/full absorb): -1 * missAmount
When looking at the Expression Editor, note that overheal is listed separately as (O: ). For the following HEAL event:
[00:00:00.000] Spirit Link Totem Spirit Link TargetPlayer +20000 (O: 1000)
totalAmount = 20000 + 1000
overhealAmount = 1000
total healing = 20000
For a DAMAGE event like:
[00:00:00.000] Spirit Link Totem Spirit Link TargetPlayer 750 (A: 250)
totalAmount = 750
absorbAmount = 250
total healing = -1 * (750 + 250) = -1000
For a MISS/ABSORB event such as:
[00:00:00.000] Spirit Link Totem Spirit Link TargetPlayer Absorb (1000)
The resulting healing is simply -1 * 1000 = -1000.
So in short:
Spirit Link does not heal but equalizes HP by taking from the rich and giving to the poor.
This makes it less useful in situations where everyone in its range takes a huge ammount of damage
BUT the 'health taken' part can be resisted/mitigated etc, making the totem exponentially effective when coupled with f. ex. Barrier or DG, as the lower health people will be healed for more than the higher people lose, making the next tick heal for more again etc.
Amirite? :-)
yesurrite
Quite an interesting totem then.
When i do my SLT i doing "friendly fire" to the raid members. anyone knows why?
Quote from: adilon;342477When i do my SLT i doing "friendly fire" to the raid members. anyone knows why?
The final bit of the first post above explains it quite well.
And Azunai is right. :-)
The 10% damage reduction is quite cool too, it's not just an equaliser.