Feedback:User/Atanna Charta/Smiting Prayers Rework

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Smiting prayers have long been as issue of balance with monks. How do you go about making them useful, without forcing you to make a gimmick build based on them? How can they be made powerful enough to be worth using, without enabling smite-spikes? And most of all, how do you solve the issue of dividing a player's attention? How can you make it so a player is able to smite without having to stop healing? Only the best of monks can split their attention enough to use the skills effectively and not let someone die in the process. After thinking about this for a long while, I think I figured out a solution. Remove the necessity to target a foe.

With my proposal, all (well, most) smiting skills will now be cast on an ally, similar to Balthazar's aura. For example:

Spear of Light Spear of Light 5Energy 1Activation time 5Recharge time Spell. A Spear of Light flies out from target ally and hits a random nearby enemy, dealing 10...42...50 damage. Spear of Light deals an additional 10...26...30 damage if it hits an attacking foe.

"But wait, can't you just shadow-step to someone and spike off them?" Not really. First of all, if there's anyone near your target, the spike will be ruined, so a smart team can easily divide the damage and stop the spike. This alone is enough to prevent any spike team from being too successful. Second, the spike will be easy to spot since the enemies will have to be standing next to their target.

Holy Strike Holy Strike 10Energy 1Activation time 10Recharge time Enchantment Spell. For arget other ally's next 3 attacks deal holy damage and have 20% armor penetration. Upon striking a foe, adjacent allies are healed for 10...42...50.

Defender's Zeal Defender's Zeal 5Energy 3/4Activation time 5Recharge time Elite Enchantment Spell. For 5...8...9 seconds, you gain 2 energy whenever target ally is struck by an attack.

These are just a few examples of potential changes. I'm sure you can think of more.

By changing these skills to target allies, it has the potential to make monks consider throwing a point or two in smiting prayers. The important part is to keep direct damage conditional a la smite condition, or have it randomized like my proposed spear of light. This will prevent spike builds.