All right, let's recap what people around here seem to think of the new revive system:
What Vanguards seem to think:
Vanguards hated having to waste their health on PUGers who would just die over and over again. They like the new revive system because it lets them use Sparks (which they never use, because they almost never die) to revive people instead of energy.
What noobs seem to think:
Noobs can't hold on to Sparks, because they tend to die more than once per depth on Advanced. They don't like the new system because they have to use valuable Sparks (instead of "free" mist) to revive, nobody (outside of the occasional, generous Vanguard) wants to revive them because they don't want to waste their Sparks, and the reduced payout for Normal doesn't make it viable as anything but a tutorial.
What soloists seem to think:
Soloists can get one free revive per depth where they couldn't before, so they stand to benefit from the new system. They like the existence of Sparks because they can revive themselves without mist.
What partiers seem to think:
Partiers hate having to use rare Sparks to revive their fellow members when they've got stacks of health, and stacks of pills to replenish that health. They also hate having to leave party members behind, denying them a good chunk of their own loot due to a lack of Sparks (or saving them for their own use) when before they could just revive them with health, pop a Health Capsule, and keep on rolling.
What Doctorspacebar thinks:
Three Rings' stated reason for the removal of health revives (diluted party health leading to repeated one-shots) is invalid because in nearly all cases the reduced health doesn't mean anything (if you're not at full health you're going to get one-shotted anyway) while the increased DPS of having more players on the battlefield does.
Wot I think:
I think that health revives were a critical part of the teamwork-related aspect of the game, and that Doctorspacebar is right. I've also inferred that Emergency Revive is intended to replace health revives. I'm well aware that mist is never coming back, and the existence of Sparks is therefore necessary.
Now, to reconcile all this:
BRING HEALTH REVIVES BACK. They never should have been taken out. To remove their one exploitable aspect the lost heat should either be returned to the knight who lost it or lost entirely. This leaves the issue of what to do with Emergency Revive. We can't just leave it the way it is now, as that would make revives far too cheap. However, removing them completely means that soloists lose their benefit of one free revive per depth. The obvious solution is to only give the player an Emergency Revive when playing solo; "playing solo" would be defined in a similar way to the system preventing warping directly to Basil for recipes, where the solo player would be given an emergency revive after spending an entire depth without party members. To prevent people from joining and immediately leaving to deny people revives, a timer could be employed so that only players interested in actually helping will be considered for the purposes of finding whether a player was "playing solo". Sparks would still be present, and work the same as they do now, directly replacing the role of energy revives. The drop rate of Sparks may or may not need to be dropped; I leave this to the discretion of Three Rings. Additional tweaks may be required to prevent noobs from being able to waltz through Elite, but I think that the increased difficulty of Elite itself will prevent that sort of thing from becoming too much of an issue.
What Vanguards get from this:
Vanguards can still revive PUGers with Sparks they don't need, so they aren't affected by this.
What noobs get from this:
Noobs can help each other to pull themselves through a difficult level with health revives when they couldn't before, but will still be dying tons (and bleeding energy to avoid wiping) if they try to do a Shadow Lair or a string of Elite levels. They also have the option to use a Spark when needed.
What partiers get from this:
They don't have to feel bad about "wasting" a Spark on someone else or else leaving a party member behind so they miss out on a big chunk of loot. They also have the option of strategically using Sparks when they need the offensive buff of an Energy Blast.
What soloists get from this:
For soloists, this effectively changes nothing.
So, that's it. Health revives have no reason to not be present.
A request to remove one thing from July 30th patch without any reason to object?
This is how you request.
+1