Legion Healing. How are specs fairing?

[onlogn]

I personally find it clunky as hell, legion holy priest is a lot more like the old mw in terms of fast playstyle. I guess you can say that we play like a holy pala with the difference that a pala can burst people up a lot quicker than a mw so if you are into raiding you are gonna have a hard time spot and tank healing with no instant spells. Our aoe heal is very limited on 20yards and its channeled so yeah, expect to stand still a lot more than on live.

Actually, the artifact ability, Sheilun fills the void pretty nicely. It does have a cast time, but it hits like a truck when you have a full set of mists. The range on Essence Font is actually 25 yards, but yeah that is pretty limiting. Overall, I think the spec works nicely. Could maybe use a bit of utility, but it seems to be one of the more powerful healers, it just is different than on live today.

But then your hoping to find a decent weapon to use to keep up (less of an issue for those who have mythic HFC gear).

Probably worth it to level with a dps spec and level up dps artifact and see how quickly you can catch up with the healing one at 110.
Raids will be locked for the start anyway (I assume) and 5m should not require a maxed artifact.

Your second artifacts become available at level 102 (this may change), so it wouldn't be too bad to do the DPS artifact quest to begin with, then hoard all the artifact power items till 102 when you can start applying them to the healing artifact.

[Autipho]

Has anyone seen the change to the Resto Druid mastery?

Mastery: Harmony Your healing is increased by 6% for each of your Restoration heal over time effects on the target. Druid - Restoration Spec. target$switch[], up to 3. Druid - Restoration Spec.

I'm not sure I understand how it works now. Could anyone explain?

Also, how are druids in Legion so far? Do they play pretty much exactly how they do now? Hots galore?

[Deleted]

Has anyone seen the change to the Resto Druid mastery?

Mastery: Harmony Your healing is increased by 6% for each of your Restoration heal over time effects on the target. Druid - Restoration Spec. target$switch[], up to 3. Druid - Restoration Spec.

I'm not sure I understand how it works now. Could anyone explain?

Also, how are druids in Legion so far? Do they play pretty much exactly how they do now? Hots galore?

It works exactly like how it says. 6%+mastery from stats, as bonus healing for each HoT you have up on the target. So if your target has Rejuv, Germination and bloom, the bonus healing that target receives is tripled. Before this change there was no limit on the amount of stacks, so if you could pop every HoT on your target, went up really high.

So to answer your next question, it's HoTs galore since you want to abuse that Mastery. But the class is in a very good state overal, specifically in 5 man content.

[Deleted]

Can't be serious. WotLK healing = spam Flash Heal and never run oom.

lol indeed my thoughts exactly.

WotLK was the most soul destroying experience for me as a healer. Literally find your fastest most expensive heal, remove everything else.

[Deleted]

How are holy paladins playing in the beta? Currently maining a rdruid but looking for something new to enjoy..

[Rivellana]

How are holy paladins playing in the beta? Currently maining a rdruid but looking for something new to enjoy..

They look to be really fun if you enjoy a playstyle where you get to be in the thick of things. Mastery increases your healing done the closer you are to your target so paladins will be standing in melee and healing and maybe even sometimes tossing out a little dps.

[Deleted]

I still can't believe that symbol of hope will make it live as it is now. Having a "mass-innervate" seems way too powerful in my eyes, or at least mandatory to have a holy priest

[tritus]

It's a 6-minute cooldown and a talent, so it doesn't seem too bad.

[Radaney]

But then your hoping to find a decent weapon to use to keep up (less of an issue for those who have mythic HFC gear).

Probably worth it to level with a dps spec and level up dps artifact and see how quickly you can catch up with the healing one at 110.
Raids will be locked for the start anyway (I assume) and 5m should not require a maxed artifact.

You will probably not catch up that fast at 110, in comparison to what you get at 100-110.

[Vexen]

Maybe it's just me, and it likely is, but I cannot heal 5 man dungeons on normal well at all as a resto shaman.

Granted I'm only level 100, but I can't seem to pull off the big single target number when the tank is pulling 5-6 guys. No earth shield really seems to be hurting me. I'm hoping it will get better as better gear comes along, but I really don't do any good joining groups as a healer right now.

I don't seem to recall this issue when first doing dungeons at the beginning of WoD as I healed all the way to 100 there with no problem.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Resto druid is the only healing spec I have really dove into since it is one of the primary classes I play on my team. It feels pretty good. My next one will be holy paladin since thats the second class bring to the team but so far I have only really tested prot and ret.

[Taeldorian]

How are holy paladins playing in the beta? Currently maining a rdruid but looking for something new to enjoy..

Holy paladin is what I've spent most of my time testing since Paladin is my main and I dislike ret. I will tell you right now, even though this is subjective, it is extremely fun. I'm enjoying myself so much I actually look forward to getting on the beta and playing my holy paladin.

There is one problem, however. Mobility. Both holy and ret suffer from low mobility, but in 5 mans I find it a bit annoying because catching up to our teammates is a bit harder. This is only in 5 mans though since we're constantly moving and pulling shit, in raids it's a lot easier because the horse is actually extremely beneficial. It's basically a better version of speed of light which I take for encounters like Kilrogg and such. Could use a passive movement speed increase for 5 mans and thats about it.

[Nihilan]

Maybe it's just me, and it likely is, but I cannot heal 5 man dungeons on normal well at all as a resto shaman.

Granted I'm only level 100, but I can't seem to pull off the big single target number when the tank is pulling 5-6 guys. No earth shield really seems to be hurting me. I'm hoping it will get better as better gear comes along, but I really don't do any good joining groups as a healer right now.

I don't seem to recall this issue when first doing dungeons at the beginning of WoD as I healed all the way to 100 there with no problem.

Being level 100 is the biggest problem. Players gain a ton of health every level*. Which greatly diminishes the strength of your puny L100 heals relative to player HP pools. And Legion stat scaling doesnt start effecting your character until L101. My advice is to wait until L102-103 before entering any 5-mans to heal. By that time you will have a great deal more throughput than you do at iL685 as a fresh L100 with your artifact.

*At L106 my Holy Pally has a bit over 900k HP. At L100 you will have 290-310k depending on class/spec.

Regarding Resto Shamans: There is a known issue with your various healing totems not scaling to full value in 5-mans, even though they are working perfectly well in raid settings. SLink is still a powerful CD, but shammies are having to rely almost exclusively on their hard-cast heals. They also lost the bounce range glyph on Chain Heal which makes spread healing harder as well given the generally shitty output of Healing Rain.

[Kyr]

idk how it compares because it is the only one i've tried so far, but disc priest is alot of fun imo. you play it more like a dps spec that spot heals than an actual healer.

i have a feeling that disc priest is going to be the "best" just because they do decent damage in addition to the healing. probably not the best at getting a group out of a bad situation, but a group that is good at avoiding boss mechanics will benefit from the extra dps that other healers just don't offer.

[Taeldorian]

Oh god I cannot even imagine doing dungeons without divine steed, with all those demon hunters fel rushing to the next target...

Holy is great, I just feel we don't have that many choices with talents for 5mans because we need the steed and we need some additional AoE healing badly. Still we have so much instant healing which is great with how much movement there is in Legion dungeons. Also too many trashpacks that are deadlier than bosses, still can't tell which are bugged and which are just a result of group sucking.

It all depends on tuning. Our instant abilities do a nice amount of heals so aoe healing isn't exactly necessary. Also, holy Paladins have always been spot healers rather than aoe healers, but there are talents that help our aoe in 5 mans. Virtue is absolutely outstanding for this. It's done some amazing things for me in dungeons, not sure how it's going to do in raids though since beacon healing is a bit more important there. Overall I'd say we have some really good tools to work with as holy as well as good options for ST/aoe healing especially for 5 mans. Try out virtue, it's really good for aoe burst healing.

As for mobility, I 100% agree. I wish we had a little more tbh because I've gotten so many groups with 4 demon hunters and found it incredibly annoying to keep up with them. Just a passive movement speed buff or something, steed isn't enough in dungeons. In raids it's extremely helpful but it doesn't suffice well enough on its own for anything that has constant running and pulling like 5 mans.

As for the mobs being annoying, I also agree. Tanks lost a lot of self sustain so that's a big change but some mobs are hitting incredibly hard. A lot of groups I've been in though have people that don't move out of stuff so I can't tell either.

[Taeldorian]

Ideally yes, spot healing should be more than enough. Practically though, people fuck up far too often for me not to have AoE tools

Btw seriously, I should not be able to spam flash forever.

Yeah a lot of people love to stand in shit and blame the healer when they die, this happens to every healing class though. We do have aoe tools and really good ones at that. Virtue which replaced savior a few builds ago is so nice man. Heals 4 people for a giant amount, only thing that you sacrifice is your beacons for that amount of time which is fine in 5 mans. In raids it might be a bit different because we won't want to sacrifice our beacons or we'd have to time everything perfectly so we don't fuck up but it works wonders in 5 mans.

I kinda like having FoL to spam, but I think it's just a tuning issue. I agree it's a bit too spam able considering it costs the same as holy light but does more healing.

[Chucksauce]

For 5 man content, go with druid, hpriest of pally. They shafted shaman's single target healing, and they lack the tools to keep small groups up. Disc priest rely on people knowing the content and not standing in stupid, but the extra dps is nice if you need it. Mistweavers go oom at the drop of a hat now. In raiding, it levels out a bit more, but I would still bring one of the first 3 and decide between the shaman or disc depending on the fight. If people go low all the time, bring a shaman, if more dps is needed, bring a disc. Granted, tuning just started so it may and will change.

[Gorsameth]

idk how it compares because it is the only one i've tried so far, but disc priest is alot of fun imo. you play it more like a dps spec that spot heals than an actual healer.

i have a feeling that disc priest is going to be the "best" just because they do decent damage in addition to the healing. probably not the best at getting a group out of a bad situation, but a group that is good at avoiding boss mechanics will benefit from the extra dps that other healers just don't offer.

Imo the situation where you need 0.5 a healer are very few. Either you need more healing and you bring an extra healer or you need dps and you bring a dps and tell people to dodge better.

The group you describe can afford to bring a full dps instead of a disc and the non-cutting edge groups are better off bringing a healer instead to keep people alive when they inevitably screw up.

That is not to say that Disc wont see play but I will not be surprised if they don't show up during the world first race.
I expect them to really shine on farm content where your healers are overgeared and dps has finally learned not to stand in fire.

[Nihilan]

Yeah, my very fist attempt at Legion healing was with a resto druid in Darkvine Forest (fuck that place). Everything was an absolute cakewalk until someone suggested we do the optional dragon boss (fuck that guy). He kicked our asses up one side and down the other for about 20 minutes. Eventually we just bailed. At L100 i did not have the gear to heal that hugely overtuned boss.

The biggest slap in the face though was that it literally takes like 5 goddamn minutes to run back to that boss from the dungeon entrance because the whole place is one stupid long path. When we said fuck it and just went to last boss we downed him first try. Shade of Xavius was hilariously easy compared to the dragon.

Point being that keeping hots rolling on multiple characters was a cakewalk compared to the tool kit of specs like Disc, Hpally, and MW. Hpally is still my favorite healer, but id be lying if i said Rdruid didnt outclass them in every conceivable way.