Blue Tweet updates re: Healing Changes

[MoanaLisa]

It's all very reassuring but whether or not they can do all of this and actually avoid what happened to healers at the start of Cataclysm is an open question as far as I'm concerned. I'm still hearing "We're going to do the same sorts of stuff to healing that we did at the start of Cataclysm but this time will be better and people will like it." We'll see.

[Count Zero]

It's all very reassuring but whether or not they can do all of this and actually avoid what happened to healers at the start of Cataclysm is an open question as far as I'm concerned. I'm still hearing "We're going to do the same sorts of stuff to healing that we did at the start of Cataclysm but this time will be better and people will like it." We'll see.

Well, they did outline a concrete change: higher base mana regen and lower scaling for regen with gear. That's about the only thing, but it's something.

[Velerios]

It's all very reassuring but whether or not they can do all of this and actually avoid what happened to healers at the start of Cataclysm is an open question as far as I'm concerned. I'm still hearing "We're going to do the same sorts of stuff to healing that we did at the start of Cataclysm but this time will be better and people will like it." We'll see.

So the make us again mana starving, give us again weak heals but let the tank eat a lot of damage and make healing so fun again? Yes, nerfing healing to oblivion is definitively THE way to make healing feel special... ok this they definitively make with the changes, because after 2/3 of all healers quit, you will feel special.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, they did outline a concrete change: higher base mana regen and lower scaling for regen with gear. That's about the only thing, but it's something.

They said exactly the same thing at cata: But instead we were simply mana starving if you didn't had at least T11. And even after this they need to buff healing across the board by 37% because it didn't worked out.

[MoanaLisa]

So the make us again mana starving, give us again weak heals but let the tank eat a lot of damage and make healing so fun again? Yes, nerfing healing to oblivion is definitively THE way to make healing feel special... ok this they definitively make with the changes, because after 2/3 of all healers quit, you will feel special.

I'm not really going to give an opinion on the specifics other than to say that despite the various tweets that are meant to be reassuring, we've seen this before. So if someone wants to be skeptical they have a right. Especially given the number of tweets over the last year that talk about how they try stuff without knowing how it's all actually going to work. So some skepticism here but an open mind. They'll have beta to sort it out but after saying all this if they have to revert a lot of it, it won't be a hopeful sign about the design group.

EDIT: I've made the point in other threads but not here: this is apparently largely being driven by PVP problems. As someone who doesn't do PVP I have every respect for those who do but I'm frankly sick of seeing game and class design for PVE constantly changed around to accommodate PVP issues. If all of this resolves that, fine. But again, I'm skeptical.

[Lovestar]

Final update, pace has slowed down significantly and from here the normal MMOC Tweet roundups should take care of it.

Mobility
Why can't we have instant as disc/holy? Seems slightly unfair.
Because we want to make healers less mobile. Good for both PvE and PvP. Encounters will demand less mobile healing. (Celestalon)
Oh god, why? Don't make it into a 'caster = turret 24/7' game again, it was never fun to begin with.
There's a huge range of potential between 'turret 24/7' and what you've got now.
Tried to emphasize in the blog that you'll still have some instant heals, just not as many. (Celestalon)
Do you think limiting mobility on healers will make fights less complex and fun? Blade Lord and Durumu would be much harder.
Absolutely. Content is tailored the abilities of classes. (Celestalon)

Cataclysm healing
Remember triage healing in early cataclysm? Healing made to scale terribly & healers stopped playing, not just in PvP.
Sounds like you're imagining a repeat of Early Cata's healing model. We made several big mistakes there.
But it had some upsides too. For Warlords, we're taking those upsides, combined with other better gameplay.
The key difference: Early Cata was also OOM-City. Not the case in Warlords. We're bringing up base regen, signif. (Celestalon)
We totally understand and expect skepticism, and look forward to constructive, critical feedback during testing.
Its just hard to believe these design goals will become reality. Healers burned by goals vs reality dichotomy before
ompletely understood. I don't blame you for being skeptical. I probably would be too. (Watcher)

Difficulty
So the top 20% go "awesome" and the bottom 30% shelve their healing spec and join the 2 hr que for 5 mans
I see it as a mandatory design constraint that the so-called "bottom 30%" can still have a fun healing experience. (Watcher)
Encounter tuning can go a long way there. Difficulty level is another way of saying "how many mistakes do we let you make?"

Beta access
The thing is, those that can test it wont get into beta. The majority is just top PvErs, streamers and fan sites.
This is utterly false. (Celestalon)
I see without fail every time all the youtubers, streamers, fan sites & top PvErs instantly beta and just mess around.
That's obvious selection bias. You see the youtubers and streamers that get in, because they're the only ones youtubing...
...and streaming. We send out tons of invites to random players, not just popular people.
Everyone that did the year pass got a beta invite. that was probably only the cool kids amirite?
We still sent out invites on top of that.

Overhealing
i am excited for the healing changes. Looking forward to not having millions and millions of overhealing as a monk.
Yeah... Wasn't it cool when overhealing was regarded as a bad thing? (Celestalon)

Paladin
50% Lay on Hands?
We're actually planning to let that one stay at 100%, which is effectively a large buff. (Celestalon)

Priest
Regarding Priest Level 90s... We've made them do either damage *or* healing, based on spec, not both, and be instant for Shadow.
I mean in 6.0, not on live.
[...] level 90 priest talents. Not all level 90 priests.
Halo, Cascade, Divine Star. The Priest level 90 talents. (Celestalon)
Halo/Cascade/Divine Star will be instant for Shadow
So what you're saying is Shadow will bring even less of our much vaunted 'off-healing' to raids? Grand. Can we get the old VE?
No, but you can get more damage. (Celestalon)

Does that mean my Disc priest won't be a viable healer? I like being able to go either way in a dungeon. Queing for either.
I'm quite baffled about what you're responding to. Nothing at all that we've done even hits at Disc not being viable. They will be. (Celestalon)

SInce absorbs are going to be so limited is Disc going to have more direct heal throughput?
Yes, we'll make sure that they can still perform well. (Celestalon)

plz realy make a shadowpriest and go in arena and tell me divine star is the most op spell in the game again i dare u
I was (obviously) referring to Holy/Disc in large raids. (Celestalon)

I like holy nova to deal a decent amount of damage. Please don't reduce its damage. That is what makes it fun!
I hate to break it to ya, but its damage is currently trivial. We aren't planning to change that. (Celestalon)

yay! We have two instant casts, renew which sucks... And PW:S. Well played devs, well played.
... and Penance, and Holy Fire, and Holy Nova, and Surge of Light, and Desperate Prayer, and Saving Grace, and Purify. (Celestalon)
does penance really count?
With its glyph, absolutely.