Healer population all time low?

[goblingirl]

I've been a healer main since the end of wrath, and I'm moving away from that for legion. I don't like the direction blizzard is moving towards in regards to healing. With the artifact leveling, it makes holding a dual spec a pain in the ass. With my job increasing my days and hours, it's going to be awhile before I can focus on doing that with a healer. Plus, the stress from pugging is real.

I've enjoyed what little healing I've done this month on my resto druid. We are one spec that didn't get nerfed into oblivion, and got a couple of good quality-of-life improvements (such as selecting efflo mushroom placement instead of having to center it on a player). It took me a couple of days to stop double stacking Lifebloom, lol.

No, resto druid is still a very good healer. Might be one of the best in Legion. I'm just enamored of some of the PvP rewards in the Dalaran Sewers and also Prestige, and no way will I pug those as resto. I don't know how you get the Sightless Eyes yet but if it requires a killing blow like Timeless Isle did, healers are fooked. So I'll go dps.

I will get the resto artifact at level 102, though, and I may switch back to healing later in the expansion once I've gotten the other PvP-related things out of the way, leveled profesisons, and all that jazz. Basically when I reach the point in the expansion when I really only log in to dungeon and/or raid.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Was a huge issue on the beta too. Not sure whats causing it.
One of the main reasons I rolled a Tank way back in Classic was because there wasn't enough of them.
Now it seems like healers are suddenly the limiting reagent?

Hope this doesn't end up being the case for Mythic+ groups. I much prefer tanking five mans.

[Damajin]

Out of all the classes I've leveled in these invasions the one that was the most fun was the holy paladin, was pretty surprised at that. There weren't many healers in all of those, and I've seen more LF heals in trade/lfg channels lately for sure.

Since I'm at 27 or 28 level 100s at the moment if I ever get around to playing that Holy Paladin I will probably level him as Holy, even if its less efficient it'll be a nice change of pace from the 15ish melee 5-7 tanks and couple of ranged dps I already have.

[Banquetto]

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

I've always had a healer as my main, and I've always thought that tanks were in shorter supply than healers, both before and since WotLK.

[FuxieDK]

I've always had a healer as my main, and I've always thought that tanks were in shorter supply than healers, both before and since WotLK.

Look at the queues for LFR and 5mans... It's always the healer that is found last..

[Ifeanychukwu]

I don't really feel that way. I've actually been loving the changes to healing classes. I've spent the last few weeks trying out the different specs and getting used to them. I actually just started leveling my first ever monk today just to try out mistweaver changes. As far as finding other healers for groups and whatever, I haven't noticed much difference now from a few months ago.

[Lucetia]

Aren't healers wasting artifact power if they level in dps spec? This is why for my guild we have assigned dps or tanks to level with the healers so they can stay heals while leveling and not lose artifact power.

They aren't wasting it unless they level it. They can use a WoD weapon until 102 and pick up the dps weapon then and grab their healing weapon prior. That or get dps then heal at 102 and then use all the AP they earned.

AP doesn't automatically go to a weapon, you pick and choose when to use it.

[Reica]

I'm a healer at heart, and I'm giving a huge amount of consideration to not play one in Legion for several reasons.

1: The new way we're expected to heal doesn't suit me. There's huge green bars, you cast and make some numbers appear but the bars just aren't filling up. I don't have fun popping a 250k heal on a 4 million HP tank. It doesn't satisfy me any more.

2: It almost feels like a punishment to not play DPS with the way the artifacts work. Sure, after half a year the difference between MS and OS artifacts are likely gone, because you've acquired a lot of AP to unlock traits on at least two weapons.. but I don't want to be locked into a support role for half a year and get behind on several fronts because you're much slower or incapable of soloing stuff.

3: I'm all for mana management as a healer, but the current implementation with just a flat regen rate and virtually zero options to replenish your blue bar, bar not casting to cut spending mana is really meh. Especially when you need to cast a lot to even fill up the missing health on people.

4: A more personal reason.. with the low heal-to-health ratio, healing pugs or even a group of friends which are not all super 1337 pro 360noscope players is a bitch. Avoiding environmental damage has become more important than ever, and not everyone feels the need to step out of that lovely fifty shades of green felfire. And I think I've had about enough after 11 years of being blamed for other peoples mistakes.

5: The gutting of the healer classes and making each fill a niche is getting on my nerves for some reason. Take your pick of either AoE healing, ST healing or Damage Healing and be happy with the choice you make for an entire expansion, making some specs much more suited for certain types of content than others. If you made a wrong choice for the content you enjoy.. good luck!

So.. take your pick. I doubt I'll continue my healer job the way it's looking right now.

[Deleted]

There's a new infusion of tanks because of the Demon Hunters and the Artifact system+ World Quests are really bad for healers. The upsides are just not there atm.

[irdsyd]

I have three different classes I heal on (priest, druid and paladin) which will swap in legion to monk and druid. On beta I tried out different ways of levelling as healer on a number of different classes. Then I tried out world quests as a healer - not something I will do on live unless I am with friends.

The conclusion I came to as the best option for me was 1. Start off levelling as dps or tank until level 102. Most healing classes are awful to solo level - especially at the lowest levels before you get some bonus dps and some dps talents (where they exist) from your artifact. 2. At 102 unlock the healing artifact. Keep levelling as tank or dps but apply any artifact power you find to the healing artifact. 3. Do levelling dungeons as healer. Doing this you are behind about 3 world quests that give artifact power from someone who levelled solely as a healer - but you probably reach 110 some hours sooner so by the time they catch up you will be well ahead.

I think the outcome of the artifact design is that for people who partly or mostly rely on PUGs there will be a healer shortage. This will get more pronounced after the first few weeks when people are levelling profession alts - because frankly solo levelling as a healer is not fun - the dps is often not too bad but you really notice it fighting rares with very high health, survivability is often good - but the boredom factor from the 2-3 button rotation and lack of other tools is very high. Profession alts often need to do dungeons to level professions - so the healer shortage will be noticed.

I predict there will be forum / twitter etc. drama about the healer shortage during the first months of the expansion. There are some simple solutions - for example let healers use a healing artifact with the same number of unlocked talents as their most levelled artifact in levelling dungeons only (ie prior to level 110). There's about eight other suggestions I have seen.

For organised groups who level as a team this will not be an issue.

[Grishnok]

Well on top of the significant healer nerfs as well as the fact that blizzard took so many active mitigation abilities away from tanks I dont blame them for not wanting to heal. IF the group wipes now its way more often the healers fault than it used to be.

[Dyfar]

Healers and Tanks should get double artifact gains to insentivize the role imo.

[Jewsco]

I have three different classes I heal on (priest, druid and paladin) which will swap in legion to monk and druid. On beta I tried out different ways of levelling as healer on a number of different classes. Then I tried out world quests as a healer - not something I will do on live unless I am with friends.

The conclusion I came to as the best option for me was 1. Start off levelling as dps or tank until level 102. Most healing classes are awful to solo level - especially at the lowest levels before you get some bonus dps and some dps talents (where they exist) from your artifact. 2. At 102 unlock the healing artifact. Keep levelling as tank or dps but apply any artifact power you find to the healing artifact. 3. Do levelling dungeons as healer. Doing this you are behind about 3 world quests that give artifact power from someone who levelled solely as a healer - but you probably reach 110 some hours sooner so by the time they catch up you will be well ahead.

I think the outcome of the artifact design is that for people who partly or mostly rely on PUGs there will be a healer shortage. This will get more pronounced after the first few weeks when people are levelling profession alts - because frankly solo levelling as a healer is not fun - the dps is often not too bad but you really notice it fighting rares with very high health, survivability is often good - but the boredom factor from the 2-3 button rotation and lack of other tools is very high. Profession alts often need to do dungeons to level professions - so the healer shortage will be noticed.

I predict there will be forum / twitter etc. drama about the healer shortage during the first months of the expansion. There are some simple solutions - for example let healers use a healing artifact with the same number of unlocked talents as their most levelled artifact in levelling dungeons only (ie prior to level 110). There's about eight other suggestions I have seen.

For organised groups who level as a team this will not be an issue.

The simplest solutions are these:
1) you level your artifact like someone likes/wants to and once leveled it is leveled for every spec for that toon. On top of effecting healers this system the way it is will effect people with tank off specs and slow down dps specs from switching to either the better one , as dps specs switch during expansions which one is best or switch between which one best for a particular fight some do better at aoe than others.

2) once one Max's out an artifact weapon they should get double the artifact power on alts. Otherwise it will take a long time for alts to be up and ready and I know for me my healers are my secondary toons even though sometimes I might play them more in the end I always level them after my dps and tanks. If they don't a a significant catch up mechanic this will effect healing and tanking big time

[normiegonnanorm]

Holy paladin for example have high skill cap, because its inevitable to have high mastery, and need to be close to allies, instead of running around in circles behind the raid
Not many people will be to achieve good results with it

[Jewsco]

Holy paladin for example have high skill cap, because its inevitable to have high mastery, and need to be close to allies, instead of running around in circles behind the raid
Not many people will be to achieve good results with it

Also pallys have always been best at tank heals. Which means thier numbers will be lower than raid healers like Druids.
But good tank healers are always needed but with the low numbers lot of people don't like to do it.
Add in some pugs don't know that and it can make it rough on pallys.

[Kiljaedon]

I believe people are reading into this more then it really is. The healer population did not necessarily drop it. It is basically a bunch of demon hunters who want to gear up along with healers indirectly being nerfed in the prepatch in healing strength. Once Legion comes back out the balance will even back out again with tanks being slightly more rare in pugs then healers.

[normiegonnanorm]

The pugs when deep into content are having enough good healers and tanks.
But on launch and after, yeah, it will be pretty sad.

[Vash The Stampede]

Heailng and tanking has always been roles that aren't fun to play. At least not fun for me to play. And it's odd cause I main a Paladin. But as players leave the game and come back, they'll come back and dps cause dps is fun. My suggestion was to make healing fun, like give Holy Paladins a healing melee attack like Holy Strike, to make healing fun. But since class design is final, you could offer healing a discount on their monthly subscription. It does feel like a job, so you might as well get a discount.

[sponge5307]

Just came back from the game after a long break(a few years). Before I quit I remember healing was such a stressful job. If people in radis I was to blame no matter what (even if they stay on fire, don't move out of stuff). Just like tanking healing is a thankless job. If no one die that's expected of you, if people die is your fault no matter what. At least as a tank you get to hit stuff. As a healer we clock on the person name, or whatever healing UI you use and heal. Nothing more.

We also need to carry two set of gear (one for healing one for dps) in case the raid needs less healers. So we have to keep 2 sets of gear up to date and often that not easy since we only get to roll on dps when no one else need it so our dps gear isn't the greatest. Doing dailies also sucks unless we have decent dps gear same with leveling. With certain class/spec that becomes easier to handle but not much (IE Shammy with Ele and Resto spec, Boom/resto druid, preist) but still gear wont' be optomize for both specs. I myself perfer to level as melee and play as a healer so I need 2 set of gear.

So if people want more healers maybe treat us with better respect and don't complain when you stay on fire and die.

[Holofernes]

i dont know i have the feeling that there are too many healers in like every raiding guild.

blizz stated at the beginning of wod that mythic raids would need 4-5 healers on average, but most stuff was killed with 3. so basically there is at least one healer to much on every roster. on heroic runs with like 16 or so people two heals are enough most of the time, so for more casual / non progress guys, the healer per raider ratio has gotten even worse, and many healers felt it would be better to go Dps in the last expansion. The fight for a raid spot for heals nowadays it worse than it was for tanks.

good dps are always searched for, so yeah healer population is low, because organized raiding needs very little healers, and healing pugs is a nightmare that sane people wont go through.