Dragonflight Season 4 - Healer Adjustments

[Lumy]

Dragonflight Season 4 - Healer Adjustments

In Season 4, we’re reducing the overall throughput of some healers to better align with our tuning goals. At the same time, we’re increasing the comparative power of Holy Paladin, Preservation Evoker, and Holy Priest without needing to further escalate the capabilities of healers.

The following adjustments are now deployed to the 10.2.6 PTR, and will go live with the beginning of Season 4 next week.

Monk

• Mistweaver
  
  • All healing done reduced by 13%. Does not apply in PvP combat.

Druid

• Restoration
  
  • All healing done reduced by 5%. Does not apply in PvP combat.

Shaman

• Restoration
  
  • All healing done reduced by 5%. Does not apply in PvP combat.

Priest

• Discipline
• Developers’ notes: As part of our goal for balancing healers in raids, we would like to reduce raid healing output for Discipline Priest without affecting them in other content.
  
  • Atonement transfers 35% of damage to healing (was 40%).
  • Atonement healing increased by 70% outside of raids (was 50%).
  • Atonement healing increased by 35% in PvP (was 15%).

Player vs. Player

Monk

• Mistweaver
  
  • Ancient Teachings healing transfer amount reduced to 375% in PvP combat (was 412%).

[Foolicious]

Good start. Now buff holy Paladin.

[Tigershrimp]

Atonement healing increased by 70% outside of raids (was 50%).

Is this the first time we've seen Blizzard tune a class based on in/out of raids?

[doledippers]

Is this the first time we've seen Blizzard tune a class based on in/out of raids?

nah, in 10.2 they changed Darkness for DH to be a 15% chance to negate damage in raid, but a 30% chance when not in a raid group

[LordVargK]

Good start. Now buff holy Paladin.

They are buffed. Everyone else getting worse = holy paladin getting better. Just read the first lines of the bluepost. Or is holy paladin worse than holy priest or preservation evoker in your opinion?

Atonement healing increased by 70% outside of raids (was 50%).

I'm wondering about this: This is an effective buff for disc in m+ content, even when considering the nerf of atonement overall. Which is nice, I guess, but is it really warranted? Disc is already a very good m+ healer.

[exochaft]

Is this the first time we've seen Blizzard tune a class based on in/out of raids?

Resto druids have had different scaling of heals based upon whether they were in a raid or not... pretty sure other healers have had the same. For example, Tranquility has had different scaling in/out of raids for years at this point. IIRC, it's mosty be surrounding AoE/CD heals that have separate scaling based upon content, but I'm sure there's been others (I just haven't paid attention to such things in a long time so I can't remember them all). Scaling was done because quite often healers can struggle to be balanced in both 5man and raid content concurrently, based upon the nature of their healing styles.

[ZazuuPriest]

They are buffed. Everyone else getting worse = holy paladin getting better. Just read the first lines of the bluepost. Or is holy paladin worse than holy priest or preservation evoker in your opinion?

I mean... yes they are worse than both holy priest and preservation, they will likely continue to be in M+


I'm wondering about this: This is an effective buff for disc in m+ content, even when considering the nerf of atonement overall. Which is nice, I guess, but is it really warranted? Disc is already a very good m+ healer.[/QUOTE]

I mean Disc is good in M+ yes but it does take at least a little bit of brainpower to play so most people are terrible at it even though its way easier than it used to be. So they have to buff it for the other 98% who are hot garbage at this game

[Tech614]

Is this the first time we've seen Blizzard tune a class based on in/out of raids?

No, multiple times they have tuned AOE heals and DRs for inside or outside of raid groups. Think of it like AOE caps on damage abilities, its just so things aren't incredibly OP in aoe situations while still being good in smaller scale situations.

[Relapses]

Nerfing R-Shamans seems... predatory.

[LordVargK]

I mean... yes they are worse than both holy priest and preservation, they will likely continue to be in M+

According to raider.io holy paladins are better off than preservation evokers. In addition the problem might not be that holy paladins are a bad healer, but rather that protection and retribution paladins are much noo prevalent right now. All the utility holy brings is already there, so bringing a holy paladin is not necessary. Paladin as a class right now is in one of the best, if not the best position in M+. Which is bad for holy, but nerfing other healers or buffing holy will not change that.

I mean Disc is good in M+ yes but it does take at least a little bit of brainpower to play so most people are terrible at it even though its way easier than it used to be. So they have to buff it for the other 98% who are hot garbage at this game

Imo healing with shaman, preservation or holy paladin is much harder than disc right now. Even playing resto might be harder, if you want to contribute meaningful damage to your run. Disc's S3 (and S4) tier bonus trivializes the spec even more than the changes in S2 did. The only thing disc is bad at is spot healing large amounts of damage. So if one of your groupmates fucks up constantly, then disc is not good. But in every other case disc is better and imo easier to play than many other healing specs.
The thing about disc is, that the default UI is terrible for it. But that's nothing buffs will change.

[Nephod]

Nerfing R-Shamans seems... predatory.

I had to re-read it a few times to make sure. They have decent throughput, but by no means are they too strong.

[Puri]

Curious decision to nerf healer output after we just had a MDI where a majority of keys was done without a healer.
So the healing requirements will even go further down, making healers even more obsolete? Or did they decide to fuck healers over twice and reduce the healing output as well as increasing the healing requirement?

[woleby96]

I'm wondering about this: This is an effective buff for disc in m+ content, even when considering the nerf of atonement overall. Which is nice, I guess, but is it really warranted? Disc is already a very good m+ healer.

It maths out as a 0.5% healing nerf in m+

[saixilein]

Is this the first time we've seen Blizzard tune a class based on in/out of raids?

Nope, they already buffed tranq & revival (Druif & Monk Raid CD) to be stronger in up to 5 man groups.

[LordVargK]

It maths out as a 0.5% healing nerf in m+

Oh, yes. You are right.

[Nephod]

It maths out as a 0.5% healing nerf in m+

Isn't it -0.83% in m+ (outside of raids)?

My 4th grade math may be waaaaay off, so ignore me if I'm wrong.

[Al Gorefiend]

Discipline priest is the single most addon-reliant spec in the game. You can still perform your role as a default UI dps spec regardless of top-level complexity like arc mage. You really cannot hope to keep a group alive at even low to mid level mythic content as a default UI disc priest. Even mouseover and focus binding macros I don't think will cut it

[Civciv]

Another season of me getting declined because R shaman gonna be terrible it seems.

[woleby96]

Isn't it -0.83% in m+ (outside of raids)?

My 4th grade math may be waaaaay off, so ignore me if I'm wrong.

yes, but atonement is not the only source of healing you have

[Nephod]

yes, but atonement its not the only source of healing you have

Fair enough. I don't main disc, so not sure how much healing they do outside of atonement.


Now, give us tank balance notes pls.