Pawkeshup the Meaningless wrote:
I don't want to argue this long, because it will get rather ridiculous, but you're saying that 1 minute is too long, yet 30 seconds would be ok. Let's do some math. So at the current 1 minute, it's 360/minute you can restore. With it at 30 seconds, that jumps to 720, nearing 1k/minute restored. Now, how fast are you taking damage? Well, in the dungeons I've gone through so far, your HP does go down fairly quickly as a DD tanking, but we cannot take that as a norm. We need to look at the tank, who'd be the one IVing if allowed. So, most tanks are not taking nearly that much every minute unless we're on a boss, and then only if they are just standing and eating everything. Now keep in mind I am still low, but we need to look at why I'm using this as an example. You see, potions have no level.
Think on that a moment. Potions have no level. That means that I, as a level 1, can down an Elixir. Sure, it'd be a waste, but I can. Now, let's say I have a friend who's a level 50 Alchemist. He could ship me an inventory-load of potions. Let's say, for sake of argument, they are all elixirs. Now, let's drop that cooldown again, to the lowest you suggested, 15 seconds. I can now, near infinitely, restore 1440HP/minute. Is this balanced? A level one capable of healing themselves for that much every minute?
OK, so let's say that now items are forced to have level-checks. That would stop that abuse, huh? True, but that's extra programming, as well as testing, and it limits content growth. If you look, there's a level 70 recipe out there for X-Potions. How does the level check work then, Item level? How much will they restore? Will they need to be nerfed into uselessness?
You have to understand, the 1 minute was not arbitrary. Math was done on every situation. And keep in mind that you can crossclass a Cure spell if you are truly hurting for heals. I did that on my PUG while solo farming/exping just to give me added survivability and lower downtime. You can argue that there are better systems, but realistically, this is an old argument that already been hashed out a long time ago.
Sorry for the confusion. Some items have a medicated status of 2-3 minutes, with High Elixirs capping out at a whole 7! (I haven't confirmed all the pots in 2.0, but that was the case in 1.0). And Potions (Both buff and debuff as well as food) have level checks. They do their level check by only providing a percent of return, with a cap of a specific amount. At low levels, you get a better return from a lower item, than you do from a higher item. You would need to have ~2,200 HP in order for you to get the full return from a X-Pot or High Elixir (Both return 24%/560HP per use). At level 5, I have 100 HP give or take. That means using an High X-Pot or High Elixir will ultimately only give me 24 hp back. Where as a Potion will give me 32 HP. Add to that the fact that an X-Pot has a 2 minute cooldown, and a high elixir has a 7 minute cooldown, yeah, I see that as HIGHLY problematic, and completely useless!
Now, do I think that actually just globally dropping all timers to 15 seconds is realistic, practical, or even non-game breaking: No. What I do think is that some of the timers are beyond ridiculous, and they have relegated potions to near (or complete) worthlessness.
And to add insult to injury, they hand them out like candy.
However, after having this discussion, I can definitely see X-Pots coming in as a little bit of a stop gap at 2 mins for level 50, since I don't use any other potions anyways... If there were other potions I might use, something would have to give, as One prevents the other with that duration. Or just don't have 2 oh-no situations in a 2 minute window...