Blizzard's response to Healer complaints

[Deleted]

Seems to mainly consist of, (is paraphrased slightly) "L2P".

Anyone else think this is a stupid approach and that they should actually LISTEN to what everyone is saying?

My healing (holy priest) spec is only my offspec, but I have been playing it a lot in 5-mans so my guild can get people geared up faster. And oh god, priests are bad. Playable, don't get me wrong, I've healed all of the HCs without too many wipes, but I consider myself to be pretty good at it.
Every single boss fight, even if the rest of the group play almost flawlessly, I still have to use both of my mana-regen cooldowns and end up on about 10% mana with the whole group on 40-50% hp. In fact, I've become pretty pro and keeping everyone alive on <20% hp whilst never having more than 10% mana for the last minute of some fights.

You might say yay, finally a challenge. And yes, I did too at first. I assumed it was because my gear (and everyone's in general) was bad, but no. We all now have mostly 346 blues and some epics from rep/the few raid bosses we killed in guild, and I'm still in this situation.

I just feel like everything that was wrong with WotLK HCs has now been dumped on the healers...

EDIT as some people seem to have misread my post. I'm not saying I can't play it. I am not the best healer in the world, far from it, but I consider myself decent. I CAN keep the group up (be it pug or guild), but it takes a lot.
I am enjoying it at the moment, because I know the fights are designed for my gear. But it is so obvious that the healer mana situation is not balanced for different classes. Some people might like healing like this, some might not. It is a thrill to know that you have managed to keep a group alive on virtually no mana for a long time, but we shouldn't have to, and it does get boring eventually.
I am known in my guild for being the healer that doesn't top people off. I know how that game works. As I said, my gear is orientated for shadow, so not overloaded with spirit, don't expect me to spam like fuck. But please, don't just throw "L2P" back in my face.

This isn't a QQ post about the state of healing (or at least it isn't intended to be). It is me getting annoying that blizzard aren't even acknowledging that they went too far with the healing nerf.
The heroic mechanics fail. Take the first boss of Grim Batol. I am pretty sure that his blitz is meant to be 1-shotting people, yet dps are outgearing that without any epics on whatsoever. As I said before, everything wrong with wrath has been dumped on the healer, it isn't fair.

[Kellytm3]

I agree with Blizzards response to the complaining healers.For every healer out there who cries about how healing is atm,there is a healer who loves how it is.Healing does not need any buffs,people either need to adapt and rethink their playstyle and understand that a DPS at 50% health still does 100% damage.Healing is no longer about keeping people topped off.

[Mowen]

You need to be running in guild group using vent or something until the average pugger gets a better idea. Being able to communicate with the rest of your group with voice, having people that can set up pulls with full CC, understanding boss mechanics and interupting and DPS that know how to move around and (gulp) heal themselves with a pot or even moving out of combat for a quick bandage is how these heroics are meant to be played.

And yea, knowing your healing skills is key. Spam your 'white hit heals' when you can, not trying to frantically keep the whole group at full, pulling out the big heals and aoe only when needed.

[Altzae]

As a resto shaman, I enjoy heroics as they are and hope blizz doesn't change them. Sometimes people die, and sometimes we wipe. Its hard, but I've had my fill of Earth shield+riptide and take a nap. If its too much work for you, stick to being a dps, and stay out the damn fire. Its people like you that ruin the game and made wotlk as boring as it was.

[Tragopan]

I just find healing tedious and not very fun these days. It reminds me of Age of Conan's healing now.. where your role is "delay the inevitable" for an entire fight instead of really making a difference. I am effective at the new playstyle due to already being very heal conservative in the past, but I still don't like this new way to heal. Doing really well should feel rewarding.. such as being able to top people off, or at least not have everyone in your party scrape by. I don't feel that way in Cata. If I do really well it is more like "Thank Cthulu that's over with.."

[Jayded1]

The thing is everyone isnt saying it. many many of us are having no problems.

*edit* I think what may be the reason for this is tank gear. Most tanks are using the end game gear mentality and stacking stam when they dont have the avoidence stats to support it. The tank I run with stacks for avoidence and he is easy to heal.

[Souper friend]

Blizz will comply to the complaints in time. its only been a week. i think they would like players to "L2P" and if over time (like a month or two) nothing appears to get any better then they will dumb healing down slightly.

Because the game has changed so much since wraith they really arnt going to listen or care what most players have to say in regards to difficulty until more time elapses. So like i said, if people are still struggling in a month or so then blizz may take action.

[ESeregon]

I agree with Blizzards response to the complaining healers.For every healer out there who cries about how healing is atm,there is a healer who loves how it is.Healing does not need any buffs,people either need to adapt and rethink their playstyle and understand that a DPS at 50% health still does 100% damage.Healing is no longer about keeping people topped off.

Agreed. The game has changed to be from yawnfest to having to pay attention. Instance groups actually have to play together and use some skills they may not used in years. Rather then zipping thru the instances like we done before to hurry to do a bunch more, players have to patience and have fun.

[Jakmax]

I think one of the huge problems is that dps, and tanks to a certain extent, aren't avoiding damage where they can, and aren't healing themselves when possible. Run it with guildies, tell them that every point of damage they take is a point of mana you waste. Tell that enh shammy to heal himself, or that mage to glyph evocation and use it when needed.

[Marxman]

Holy Priests: USE LIGHTWELL. It's freakin' amazing now. No, I'm not joking. Teach your DPS to click it anytime they're below 80% health and all of your runs will go much more smoothly. Other than Paladins (obviously), I'd say Holy Priests are probably the next best healing class for heroics. Lightwell is just that damn good.

[Tiptoes]

I had a shammy friend I was running with in some heroics, they were complaining about running out of mana and healing being too hard. I directed them to sites like elitist jerks, and after a day spent reading forums and such they said that they have made a huge improvement and are much more mana efficient. They learned too play!

[Conradek]

Its people like you that ruin the game and made wotlk as boring as it was.

This is also directed at the OP.

[yovmit98]

If you are ending up with 10% mana left and everyone alive, job well done, working as intended. One week into a patch and you have to use cd to keep people up, again, working as intended. I am sure devs are listening. I hope they are patting each other on the back and thanking themselves for fixing the faceroll bore of a game that wow becamse during wotlk.

I think this has been a near perfect mix of plenty for casuals to do/work for while the hardcore elite have goals to reach while setting themselves apart from the rest of the pack.

I can only hope the whole xpac maintains this challenge level.

[Heaterz 88]

we are in 333-346 blues...this gear is total garbage to what we are gonna have a year from now. this shit is supposed to be a pain in the ass right now.

[Lightworker]

For every healer out there who cries about how healing is atm,there is a healer who loves how it is.

I highly doubt it.

[ShockASU]

You're having problems? Here's the advice I'll give you...ADJUST!

After one heroic I realized - "This isn't Kansas anymore Todo." And through everything I knew of healing out the window.

I'm still tinkering and sometimes do have mana issues but it's getting easier. Play and figure stuff out. Everyone's learning things (or relearning aspects of the game).

Being a Healadin....I'm ecstatic about the healing changes. Granted I'm going through growing pains. BUT - much more involved than hitting 1-2 heals over...and over....and over....and over....again.

[MildCore]

I agree with Blizzards response to the complaining healers.For every healer out there who cries about how healing is atm,there is a healer who loves how it is.Healing does not need any buffs,people either need to adapt and rethink their playstyle and understand that a DPS at 50% health still does 100% damage.Healing is no longer about keeping people topped off.

Not necessarily. It's about knowing the fights and knowing how to heal them properly. For instance Baron Ashbury will reduce you to 1% health regardless what you have, so sure you can keep the group at about 30-50% for the first phase to conserve mana for the Dark Angel phase. But other fights you have bosses that'll target a specific member at hit them for about 60k, which is usually more then half their health so it's more important to keep members above 70%'ish health for those fights. I'd say every fight is different and no single healing philosophy is good enough anymore. Learn the fights, adapt your playstyle to each fight and execute it.

[silverhope]

Holy priest is my main atm and i gotta say they really need to amp up the amount of heals i put out. My Heal only dose 7k non crit and 10k crit (im in dungeon blues and jp blues) It seems rather silly for me to be healing for the same amount as i did in wrath when ppls health has gone up so much..

Even my oh shit heal (flash) only hits for 12k and sometimes 20k crit but with lack of crit/spirit gear it dosent happen enough.

I do love how its hard and how healing takes skill but the base amounts are just to low with the amount of mana they cost. We are not choosing what spells to use we are choosing who lives and dies on some pulls because our mana wont let us 911 heal more than just the tank.

[Endus]

Blizzard is absolutely, 100% correct. I am absolutely enthusiastically pleased that they're sticking by their guns on this rather than caving in to complaints from people who are used to the way things were in WotLK, and want a return to content tuned so low that you can watch a movie while hitting "1" on your keyboard and still finish in 20 minutes with no challenge.

I'm having troubles healing as a Resto shaman, but that's entirely because I'm an Elemental shaman, as my main spec, and I've only got the one gear set. My trinkets are terrible for Resto, and I have far too much Mastery and not enough Crit or Spirit. I'm well aware that this is why I'm having trouble, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I feel like gear and skill actually matter again, and they absolutely did not, even at Wrath's launch. I ran as Resto in TBC, and despite them giving us new skills, I used more spells more consistently in TBC than in early Wrath, if you consider each rank of spell a separate spell (since basically, Healing Wave is a downranked GHW, in the current paradigm).

The changes they've made are great.

Every single boss fight, even if the rest of the group play almost flawlessly, I still have to use both of my mana-regen cooldowns and end up on about 10% mana with the whole group on 40-50% hp. In fact, I've become pretty pro and keeping everyone alive on <20% hp whilst never having more than 10% mana for the last minute of some fights.

This leads me to suspect that you're being wasteful with your mana early in the fight. If you can be that conservative and efficient with it later in the fight, there's no real reason you can't do that the whole fight.

I do love how its hard and how healing takes skill but the base amounts are just to low with the amount of mana they cost. We are not choosing what spells to use we are choosing who lives and dies on some pulls because our mana wont let us 911 heal more than just the tank.

You aren't supposed to be able to 911 heal. If the DPS and tank are taking damage they could avoid, you're supposed to wipe because your group is failing. In Wrath, the healer existed to basically make up for everyone's mistakes. Now, they exist to actually manage health levels to allow for a boss kill.

What you're seeing in Cataclysm is actual healing, rather than mistake suppression. This is an absolutely excellent change.

[Lostprophet]

You are supposed to be @ low Mana after a trash group or Boss even in 346 Blues(as a Priest). You will get pretty fast some Epics which help allot. I've got 3 359 Items right now( only 1 is from a Raid). But this is only true if you dont CC. With 1 or 2 cc's I've no Manaproblems at all.

Our Palas & Drewds have no Mana Issues in Heroics at all. I as a Priest, have. But things are looking better in Raids. I'm competitive almost every fight.