Healer population all time low?

[Deleted]

Personally I can't even remember the last time I pugged anything, so that's probably true. I'm also leveling as a DPS spec because Blizzard's promise of healers being able to level efficiently didn't hold water, at least for my class.

Wait what, all of the healers are doing amazing in Legion content, what are you talking about

[healzforu]

This is the case for me as well. Guild leader simply will not let me play anything else except a healer at least for our main progression run (been healing since WotLK btw and been in the same guild for seven years now).

In said guild everyone else has a dps main and the rest of their account filled with dps alts. None of them will touch tanking or healing. I've voiced this concern on a few occasions and all I get is crickets chirping.

True story: A combat rogue got brave and actually gave healing a try. After his experience of having the lives of four other people in his hands he wrote in guild chat: " I WANT NOTHING TO DO WITH HEALING EVER AGAIN!" I laughed so hard I just about passed out. Same thing with another guildie who usually brings her pally tank to raid and also tried healing in a raid. She was like "OMG how to you handle the stress? I can't believe you do this! I'm so sorry "

I believe this story, i mained a resto druid and a holy pally for years, and everytime someone tried to heal it was i got kicked or i hate this, im so bad at healing lol..Healers get the most stress, tank died, wtf healer! Dps stood in bad "His Fault", wtf healer? It goes on and on, this is why i think everyone should try and heal an actual raid and i don't mean LOL LFR either, i mean a real mythic raid during progression, and they will see how stressful it can be...

[Senistian]

We probably will have a healer shortage, more so then before. I was a healer in cata and WoD. With the changes in legion I just didn't like it, on any class.

[Deleted]

They changed healing quite a bit, its not as fun anymore for most classes.

I think this is basically the case as well.

I am still maining holy pally myself but for any sort of non-raid content, it's strictly dps or another class preferably.

[Morssoe]

People have been crying about the lack of healers, since late WotLK..
Before that, it was tanks, that was in short supply..

Perhaps wotlk and onwards wow shifted from group content to solo content, and heal spec cant do solo content so well......

[Deleted]

Perhaps wotlk and onwards wow shifted from group content to solo content, and heal spec cant do solo content so well......

Naah, IMO healing was in very good condition during MoP, Cata was a bit better for paladins IIRC but starting WoD, it's really gone meh. Especially with their design decision to add a cast time to everything...

I honestly, enjoyed this spec way more in MoP than I have ever really liked it in WoD so far. Cata I was a dps and earlier to that a dps as well.

Legion, well, time will tell.

[tratra]

I came back a week ago as a healer. TBH I'd say I've seen a lot of healers out there.

I'd say there is a demand of dps in general, at least from what I can see.

I guess its only the last week of this expansion so noone is rly playing pugs apart from people boosting and people that just came back like me.

[SoundOfGuns]

1. Accept the fact that 95% of all DPS-Players have NO IDEA... and i mean NOT THE SLIGHTEST HINT of how healing works and how certain things affect the output.
2. Notice how in dungeons and battlegrouns every DPS who did not do 1. is complaining, bitching and moaning when things don't work out and they die for whatever reason, automatically blaming the healers based on - for example - numbers on the score-board or - as another example - based on nothing but "I died!".
3. Put yourself in a healers shoes in these mentioned events.

If you followed this steps correctly you have been enlightened! You now know that being a healer is the most ungrateful job in World of Warcraft and why even veterans at times don't put up with that and join groups they know are mentally developed enough.

Of course there is also the thing that there are likely a good number of healers out there, but the number of DPS is much more vast. Therefor it maybe feels like there are less when they aren't. Just more people competing for that one Healer or Tank in their group.

[Deleted]

There also seems to be a high number of tanks lately, it's quite hard to find a group as a tank who isn't willing to respec to dps.

[Meagree]

I think that is the point I was going to raise just less knowing what i aim for.
Healing raids sucks since you are preemptively spamming heals. Hardly any thinking involved.
What i like about healing is the triage, you have to decide who to heal and how in splitseconds. That doesn't apply to raids.

Then there is also the persisting issue of beeing a better healer doesn't get you anywhere outside of group content.

Right. Healer is pretty fundamentally flawed for a mainspec. Some would argue that there should be a complete redesign (a la GW2), personally I'd like it if healers became more support oriented than the pure healers they are today. Maybe have it remain as a choice to be a pure healer, I dunno.

Overall, healers need to be more interesting to solo as. Legion is a step in the right direction by fixing their shitty damage, but it's only a step. We need at least a leap to get to where people will start maining healers more.

[Synadrasa]

The problem is playing solo doesn't support healers. Healers only have a place in group content and the rest of the game doesn't seem to be built around them. I played resto druid since tbc I can tell you healing has gone through some rough patches, disc priests destroyed a lot of fun in mop and wod and blizzard was not even close to being able to balance it. Being able to smash your keyboard and do more healing than any other healer and have a permanent raid slot didn't make any sense on top of doing fucking atonement dps?!! Many of the healers toolkits haven't change much either compared to dps.

[Ahovv]

They changed healing quite a bit, its not as fun anymore for most classes.

I'd say still more complex/fun than most dps specializations. Definitely more keybinds, more reactive ability usage.

[Deleted]

As far as I've seen there are less healers but more and more hybrids, people who don't mind healing or dps.

[oplawlz]

Give it some time, the changes to healing are going to drive away a lot of the lazy/bad players who specced disc or w/e and bring back some of us competitive healers who enjoy a challenge. I suspect the quantity of healers will remain low but the quality will end up much higher as the chaff goes back to playing arms wars and bm hunters.

[Deianeira]

I don't know whether it's an "all time low", but healers have been in high demand all the time. I think the main reason is that noone will level as a healer, since dungeon xp can't compete with questing. The population will "normalize" after the initial weeks of leveling, but healers will still be sought after.

I wonder why this myth is going around that you cant level(quest) as healer? Esepcially in Legion it will be no problem leveling as a healer. Sure some healing classes are perhaps faster then others. I leveled all healers except monk to atleast 105 and my main to 110(Pally) I had no problems at all levelling and it did not take like forever to do it either. The only thing that took a bit longer was a few of the rares that had a bigger hp-pool. And ofc it goes faster if you level as dps but its not as it breaks the game, atleast not imo.

Also i dont know about most ppl but normally i level with one or two of my guildies and then it goes even faster. I did not level with anyone on Beta though.
I also like the fact that i rarely ever die when i level and i can take loads of mobs at the same time. I understand that perhaps not all healers can do that since no other wears plate. But i think i can do quite a bit of damage atleast when i have the Artifact.

[Allatar]

maybe for you.
I heal since classic and never stopped it was allways fun "for me".


Healer population was allways low because not everyone can play a healer and dont want to be responsibel for others lifes in the group or raid.

Anyone can play a healer: playing a healer well however isn't performing a role, it's a calling.

[Deleted]

I wonder why this myth is going around that you cant level(quest) as healer? Esepcially in Legion it will be no problem leveling as a healer. Sure some healing classes are perhaps faster then others. I leveled all healers except monk to atleast 105 and my main to 110(Pally) I had no problems at all levelling and it did not take like forever to do it either. The only thing that took a bit longer was a few of the rares that had a bigger hp-pool. And ofc it goes faster if you level as dps but its not as it breaks the game, atleast not imo.

Also i dont know about most ppl but normally i level with one or two of my guildies and then it goes even faster. I did not level with anyone on Beta though.
I also like the fact that i rarely ever die when i level and i can take loads of mobs at the same time. I understand that perhaps not all healers can do that since no other wears plate. But i think i can do quite a bit of damage atleast when i have the Artifact.

I remember leveling a holy priest and a holy paladin in Classic. The situation today is definitively better, but I still notice the difference between DPS and healer specs. Let's see how the Artifacts will play out.

I still cannot decide if my priest will stay Discipline (been that since Wrath), or switch to Holy as main spec. I find the new playstyle kinda interesting, but I don't know if I want to have this double-stress of having to pay attention to all heal-relevant things and doing dps on top. Holy playstyle is more relaxed. Or the Resto Druid will become my new main again, just like in BC. Though, I also had some fun with the Holy Paladin... mh... I just cannot decide.

[Anastacy]

Actually holy is more efficient, it has a non targeted aoe that heals you and damages them. Carry on spreading wrong info though!

Uh...Holy Nova doesn't heal anymore.

Might wanna apologize about spreading wrong info...

[Deleted]

Actually holy is more efficient, it has a non targeted aoe that heals you and damages them. Carry on spreading wrong info though!

What skill would this be? Holy Nova doesn't heal and the only non targetable AoE other than that is Halo/Divine Star both of which have cooldowns and Disc has access to as well.

Keep Spreading that wrong info though!

[Deleted]

I think healers get burned out more easily then dps/tanks. You have to really enjoy healing to not be affected by it. You are constantly watching healthframes and pretty much see the moment a dps is standing in fire. Out of position/standing in fire/finishing cast before moving/no hp potion/no defense cooldowns used. Those are the things i will notice on dps players right away. You watch for other peoples failures and then if you fail it can have some pretty big consequences. Much less of an issue in higher-end organized pve content. But i wouldn't want to be a healer who pugs everything. And yes there are always exceptions. They might have a perfectly valid reason to it. But lets face it a lot of people simply stand in fire.