Sun Paladins and Bathe in Light

[korakes]

I'm somewhat unsure how I should be using this spell with a sun paladin. So far I either use it in combat to extend an expiring shield or when I have to disengage I'll use it to heal up and accumulate a new shield. When I use it in combat though, it seems to provide enemies with far more healing than I would expect. Should I be pre-casting shields and popping it before engaging? How do good players use this spell?

[orange<]

As a rule of thumb, if you've stacked healmod, which is quite easy to do, you should get more healing than your foes. Can be tricky as it also gives decent healmod, and your foes may be healing for a high base amount anyway.

One of the (only...?) reasons the skill can (could?) be so ridiculously powerful is that it can be used to give you a big damage shield (recently nerfed) before engaging some badguy you knew was around the corner - I've rarely had the patience to do this sort of thing so I might be a little off the mark.

[Frumple]

I'unno if I'd call myself good, but generally* I use BiL just as kinda' filler, unless I've got a lot of a shield left and want it extended. Basically, if I'm actually taking damage and don't have something better to use, I'll go ahead and use bathe. Sometimes even if I do have something generally better to use, if feel like I need to mitigate some extra damage before I'll hit a hole in the talent rotation. Iirc it's also fairly costly, so to speak, so if you need a quick resource infusion it's decent for it.

So far as usage itself goes, popping it down a bit ahead of where you're going to fight is ideally what you want to do. Hit it two/three squares ahead of your target, movement infusion/sun path thing in so you're in the field but the enemy isn't if you can't just walk there quick enough. Said path can make that pretty easy, actually, if you're willing to burn the escape for it. Drop the path, then the bathe, then 0 cost move where you want to fight. Similarly, using the path mid-fight to move a few tiles back, pop BiL, and move back in, is a thing you can do. Wouldn't recommend messing with that unless you've got another means of escape, though.

So far as shield use and BiL goes, pre-casting is indeed generally the most optimal, whatever'll let you squeeze out the most turn extensions/boosts from the talent. Practically, you don't really have to care, most of the time. Its extension/boost is nice, but anything the extension would help on generally isn't actually dangerous, and anything the boost would help on is probably going to pop the shield you're trying to extend before you get much out of it, so trying to maximize that part often enough doesn't make much more difference than BiL does without a pre-cast damage shield to extend.

Beyond that, it has a nice little synergy if you're using one of the summoning artifacts or racials. Haven't tooled around with 'em much on higher than normal, but the spiders that can pop out of the egg sack can be pretty hardcore on the base difficulty and the extra bit of tank is just icing. Conceptually good for escort quests, too, assuming you still hate yourself and haven't installed an addon that makes that less hair pulling. Still okay if you have, but relatively less useful.

* When I remember it exists, anyway. Most of the time that only happens when I'm actually in a bit of a bind, heh, so it doesn't get used too often.

[Coldbringer]

It's good for increasing your positive energy so you can spam Wave of Power

But yeah you could pre-buff yourself vs a melee monster closing in or take some of the sting out of a ranged opponent shooting you while you wait for your mobility skills to cool down. As you noticed, using it while facing a group of monsters or facing off against a powerful rare or boss will be sub-optimal as they'll get healed and shielded too. Thing is, on the lower difficulty levels you'll be doing way more damage than them in most cases so the heal + shield benefits you far more. Plus weapon of light sustain will be charging that shield up repeatedly. And it can be a good way to save escorts who run into danger