Why dont people focus healers?

[Lazuli]

I still can never figure this one out. People would rather attack a DPS and literally do ZERO damage than focus the healer thats keeping him topped off. If you just wanna run around and tunnel people I guess thats fine since you can play the way you want to. However, what fun is it beating on a guy who stays full health the entire time? The end result is you are gonna die and he stays 100% health. I dont see how that could be fun for anyone. Or do some people just enjoying not contributing anything to a fight?

Healers are raid bosses / target dummies in BfA, if you want to practice your pve rotation its fine but if you want people to die you CC healer and target dps unless you got some godly burst.

[exochaft]

It also really depends on the healer class you're going after, as some are a helluva lot more squishy than others to where a casual "...yeah, just kill the <insert class> healer, he'll go down quick." Besides some healers being tankier than tanks in some regards, you also get DPS that can be just as tanky... which results in generally picking the least tanky class in the bunch.

I think it's indicative of a larger PvP balance issue where you're getting healers being almost unkillable paired with DPS that barely/don't need a healer. It just ends up not being fun at all, especially if you aren't a class/spec that falls into that power category. It's probably a trickle over from the PvE side of things, where Blizz wanted classes to have less downtime during questing/outdoor content, to the point where there's some non-healer capable classes that are more sustainable than said healer-capable classes. If there's something I'd hope for in 9.0, it'd be that DPS actually need healers in PvP content and to cut down on all the survival CD's and self-healing that's ridiculous atm. We've gone from a CC arms race to a survival CD arms race.

[SkagenRora]

Never understood why healers were allowed in arena... In BG's i guess it could be allowed, But they should remove it from arena

[agentsi]

In theory, it's best to just keep the healer stunlocked (What with interupts, CCs and whatnot) and kill the DPS then it is to keep the DPS stunlocked and kill the healer, especially since healers can dispel most CCs.

Heck, as a Feral, I can keep a healer locked out for nearly 20 seconds by myself, more then enough time to kill several other damage dealers

Honestly, this has always been the best way to deal with healers. Kill who they're healing, then take care of them when they have no one left to heal. Also, gives you more time to live as their dps are dead and no longer beating on you, AND helps your healer as well.

[Kralljin]

If there's something I'd hope for in 9.0, it'd be that DPS actually need healers in PvP content and to cut down on all the survival CD's and self-healing that's ridiculous atm.

After the cold reception that Blizzard has received for pruning and removing abilities from classes for the sake of <class fantasy>, i doubt you'll see any of that.

Here's my (pessimistic) guess for 9.0: they'll randomnly dump "fan favorite" abilities back into the game without any concern.
Some will get utterly OP spells back, some might just get some random abilities for the sake of flavor.

I could be wrong, but considering how badly Blizzard has fucked it up during the WoD - BfA era with class design, they'll just aim to please people from now on without any serious concept of class fantasy or how to balance it properly.
Classes needs to be "fun" within their own vacuum, that's all that will matter to them most likely.

[Druitz]

I will never belive people will CC healers with brain in random bgs.

Most bg players never reached more than 1500 in rated brackets so it's just easier for them to tunnel 1 target than keep CC or avoid aoe dmg to break CC.

For me the only reason why people go with focus healer tactics in random bgs is because its easier for average/bad player to focus them than keep CC

[conceptKitty]

Honestly, you can't expect people to be coordinated in random battlegrounds. Objectives are ignored and people prefer to just do whatever. Why capture the flag when you can just derp in the middle endlessly!

[Shalaator]

For a prepared healer, there is no better situation than the healer himself being attacked, since he can't be cc'ed, giving him more healing uptime.

[Stormspellz]

Never understood why healers were allowed in arena... In BG's i guess it could be allowed, But they should remove it from arena

because combat is designed with healers / support in mind. Otherwise arena would be even more horrible experience.

[kebabmasterxd]

unless the healer has no fingers, he's not going to die, especially if there's more than 1.

blizzard turning healers into immortal tanks is just one of the many problems PvP has

[Misuteri]

I’ll never forget healing an AB during MOP and watching every base stay the same in a 3-2 advantage in favor of my team.

There were fully 20 people fighting for BS, well, my team was farming the other 10....

I was a shammy chain healing to my hearts content, no one even breathed on me, I basically one button healed a raid and no one dropped below 80%. End of the match I had over 1,000,000 healing which I had never, ever seen on a BG, random or rated.

That day I just laughed that... no one focused the healer. Not one on a team of 15.

[Shalaator]

Because stuns, silences and school lockouts aren't a thing. Riiiight...

And those get spammed to no end in random BGs. Depending on class composition and individual's skills of the enemy team, they can make quite sure that my heal shaman can't do much more than occasionally drop a totem and throw that weak ass instant HoT onto some poor bastard. Since everything is a nature spell, casting anything with a cast time is always a gamble that I lose a good portion of times, leaving me effectively silenced for several seconds. (Insignia does nothing against lockouts either.)

Disclaimer: I exclusively play random BGs. I have next to 0 experience with arenas or rated.

A healer will always struggle more keeping up a dps if he's being actively CC'ed, then keeping himself up if he's being trained. That's why people don't train healers in rated bg's (usually).

[Stormspellz]

Healing in pvp need to be reduced by 50% to make it even remotely fun to play.

the healing nerf that is needed is all the passive and dps healing floating around now a days, then you can look at healers.

when dps can push hps to near actual healer levels, healers aren't the problem.

[Schattenlied]

when dps can push hps to near actual healer levels

Very few DPS can do this, and they can't sustain it for very long, it's usually tied to a 2-5min CD with a 20ish second duration.

healers aren't the problem.

Yes they are, the fact that dampening needs to exist at all says this is a lie.


That being said, proper use of CC and interrupts will shit all over them... Problem is when you go into a random WSG and the other team has 3 healers, it's basically impossible to coordinate the CC and interrupts necessary to shut that down in a pug, it's hard enough to get pugs to target healers at all, let alone the same one, while CCing the others.

[Stormspellz]

Very few DPS can do this, and they can't sustain it for very long, it's usually tied to a 2-5min CD with a 20ish second duration.




Yes they are, the fact that dampening needs to exist at all says this is a lie.

dampening became a thing when all the dps can self heal, so yes the self healing is a problem. Every class has access to azerite, essences and trinkets that all increase the problem of the base specs passive/active dps healing.

[Schattenlied]

dampening became a thing when all the dps can self heal, so yes the self healing is a problem. Every class has access to azerite, essences and trinkets that all increase the problem of the base specs passive/active dps healing.

DPS were able to self heal very effectively for 3 expansions before dampening became a thing, some of them far better than they do now.

[Stormspellz]

DPS were able to self heal very effectively for 3 expansions before dampening became a thing, some of them far better than they do now.

the only one was rets in cata, and which cause the triple dps meta in 3s, and it was cancer. Hardly the same trend.


So lets break it down the trait that puts a shield on you, its what 25k in its pvp nerfed state at high end gear. Match starts you ahve the shield up and cd running down, get in combat shield breaks and then procs again. Thats already 1/6th of you hp for free from one of like 10 sources now a days. Then you add in all the base kits sustain every one has, followed by numerous cds. It all adds up, so saying "healer op nerf!" is identifying the problem.

[Schattenlied]

It all adds up, so saying "healer op nerf!" is identifying the problem.

This exact problem existed before Azerite and Artifact traits, and essences, blaming it on them is being incredulous at best.

[Stormspellz]

This exact problem existed before Azerite and Artifact traits, and essences, blaming it on them is being incredulous at best.

you keep replying to only parts, yes the problem has gotten worse over the years, but its the same problem - dps healing.

[Schattenlied]

you keep replying to only parts, yes the problem has gotten worse over the years, but its the same problem - dps healing.

No.

I addressed the whole post with my statement, I covered your mention of artifact traits and essences, you blamed the "problem" on them hence my quoting of the part where you pretend the problem isn't healers being grossly overtuned.

The problem of healers being nigh unkillable predates artifacts/azerite traits and essences, it started when they took manaburns out of the game and made healer's mana last a lot longer on top of it, which happened in MoP (and surprise surprise, that's when dampening was put in, in MoP just over 1 year after it launched). Those changes skyrocketed healer's powerlevel, they are why dampening was put in, not "dps healing".