Huge healing buffs to crap healer specs

[Coniferous]

So finally, after about a decade of leaving healers unbalanced, blizz seems to finally be taking action:

https://ptr.wowhead.com/news/9-2-ptr...t-buffs-325675

I guess the idea is that holy priest and druid are now huge throughput specs and paladin, disc and shaman are the utility specs (and I think everyone forgot mistweaver exists lol). They also buffed druid/holy damage and nerfed paladin, but the buffs and nerfs are about 20% of what they would need to be to balance out the damage.

Personally, I still don't think this works because utility that prevents deaths (like shaman has) is just better than throughput most of the time. Maybe on the very cutting edge when you need every scrap of healing, druids and holy priests are now better, but the game hasn't been about hps for a long time.

So yes, they are recognizing the problem, but the fix doesn't seem to work.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I agree with you for the most part. Truth is I feel this is the most they would do during an expansion these days. Just make a mega healing buff to shade some of the heat from the bad state those classes were in healing wise. It probably doesn't change a ton on the highest end where utility execution in healing will be really spot on but to your typical mass of the population type of players it probably does.

[Coniferous]

I agree with you for the most part. Truth is I feel this is the most they would do during an expansion these days. Just make a mega healing buff to shade some of the heat from the bad state those classes were in healing wise. It probably doesn't change a ton on the highest end where utility execution in healing will be really spot on but to your typical mass of the population type of players it probably does.

The thing is, if hps doesn't matter much at the top end, it really doesn't matter in places like heroic because you usually end up with way more throughput than you need. The things that help are the things that prevent deaths due to burst... a buff to tranquility doesn't do that. You know what does that? Spirit link. Bursty single target heals. Absorbs. Damage reduction cds.

You know, the stuff shaman, pally, and disc has.

Otherwise, in heroic the hps leader is usually the person who gets lucky and get a huge tranq or something.

[Relapses]

Man, your war on Spirit Link Totem continues. It is a powerful spell, yes, but outside of this last expansion Shaman has not been a FotM healer since TBC. Would you prefer if all healers had something like SLT?

[VinceVega]

They should first get read of the "healers have to do dmg"-meta.

Hate that. So much.

Power wise every spec can shine at some boss. Utility wise... yeah... stuff like spiritlink is just way above the other Healers. Tranq is powerful. For a really short time. And you cannot move. Which is difficult as most bosses need you to move basically 100% of the time.

[kamuimac]

so which healer is now meta fotm spec to reroll ? its not like people play what they enjoy anyway so who cares

[saixilein]

I love the monk changes.

[Exkrementor]

outside of this last expansion Shaman has not been a FotM healer since TBC.

TBC, Dragon Soul, MoP, Uldir and Eternal Palace, Shadowlands.

[cparle87]

They should first get read of the "healers have to do dmg"-meta.

Hate that. So much.

Power wise every spec can shine at some boss. Utility wise... yeah... stuff like spiritlink is just way above the other Healers. Tranq is powerful. For a really short time. And you cannot move. Which is difficult as most bosses need you to move basically 100% of the time.

I miss being able to move during Tranq back in Legion. I ruined so many Tranqs in BFA until I adjusted.

[Rageonit]

They should first get read of the "healers have to do dmg"-meta.
Hate that. So much.

How exactly? Here's the thing: when there's nothing to heal, healer damage helps to kill the boss, period. And this isn't something forced by Blizzard (becasue you still CAN kill all the bosses with healers doing literally 0 damage), this is something players do - and for a good reason. Why shouldn't you click that damage spell when your group is safe? There is no reason not to, so players will do just that. Because it makes sence. So the meta is player-driven, and all Blizzard CAN do is balance it as best as they can. What's the other option? Take away all DPS skills from healer specs?
Even if you get rid of healer specs that do damage on purpose (hpala/disc), good healers will still try to squeeze damage spells here and there.

[Hotmail]

That's good. Holy Priest's lack of competitiveness was one of the few factors that made me stop playing 2 months into SL. Fun spec, but the numbers just weren't there and I was pushing the spec to its limits.

[T-34]

They should first get read of the "healers have to do dmg"-meta.

Hate that. So much.

Power wise every spec can shine at some boss. Utility wise... yeah... stuff like spiritlink is just way above the other Healers. Tranq is powerful. For a really short time. And you cannot move. Which is difficult as most bosses need you to move basically 100% of the time.

Healers got their damage buffed because so many healers refused to spec dps for questing/levelling and Blizzard caved to their complaints and gave healers viable ways to do meaningful damage.
The only way to get rid of the "healers have to damage-meta"' is to remove the ability for healers to do (meaningful) damage.

[Coniferous]

Man, your war on Spirit Link Totem continues. It is a powerful spell, yes, but outside of this last expansion Shaman has not been a FotM healer since TBC. Would you prefer if all healers had something like SLT?

Yeah this is just wrong. Shammy has been meta since basically mop.

[Enter Name Here]

Healers got their damage buffed because so many healers refused to spec dps for questing/levelling and Blizzard caved to their complaints and gave healers viable ways to do meaningful damage.
The only way to get rid of the "healers have to damage-meta"' is to remove the ability for healers to do (meaningful) damage.

now that everyone can switch specs everywhere for free it would be nice to remove that ability.
but this will only just move the complaints of "healers have to dps" to "healers have too much idle time/nothing to do when the group is capped"

you could remedy that by increasing overall incoming damage but then there will be complaints of "healing is too hard/too stressful/not beginner friendly"...

[Rageonit]

Healers got their damage buffed because so many healers refused to spec dps for questing/levelling and Blizzard caved to their complaints and gave healers viable ways to do meaningful damage.
The only way to get rid of the "healers have to damage-meta"' is to remove the ability for healers to do (meaningful) damage.

So in short, to get rid of a problem in one environment (which isn't a huge problem BTW, you can still get away with doing zero damage as a healer), we create problems and annoyances in all other environments?

[Caprias]

So in short, to get rid of a problem in one environment (which isn't a huge problem BTW, you can still get away with doing zero damage as a healer), we create problems and annoyances in all other environments?

Problems and annoyances for bad players.

Being able to contribute damage during down time adds to skill expression, why tf. should that be removed? It's fun.

[VinceVega]

How exactly? Here's the thing: when there's nothing to heal, healer damage helps to kill the boss, period. And this isn't something forced by Blizzard (becasue you still CAN kill all the bosses with healers doing literally 0 damage), this is something players do - and for a good reason. Why shouldn't you click that damage spell when your group is safe? There is no reason not to, so players will do just that. Because it makes sence. So the meta is player-driven, and all Blizzard CAN do is balance it as best as they can. What's the other option? Take away all DPS skills from healer specs?
Even if you get rid of healer specs that do damage on purpose (hpala/disc), good healers will still try to squeeze damage spells here and there.

Either give every healer a way to deal easy consistent damage or don't. Some specs like druids have it way harder to even reach close to the dps of disc and shamans. It is just stupid. Yes it is the player... in a way.
The summed up damage of the healers is another DD. Sometimes even more. Which makes the whole fight shorter. So if you are close to some enrage timer and have to think about taking the druid or the shaman. You take the shaman/disc or hpala.
Nerf the damage into the ground. Done. No need to do damage because it is basically worthless and with free respeccing no healer needs to do damage anyway.

And it is not bad if in a fight there are sometimes a few seconds where i don't need to do anything. Tanks have it. DDs have it. But in intermissions healers have to pump out healing nowadays because of some aoe mechanic raging on. Nothing to heal. Do max damage. Or in case off some specs you do dmg anyway and are inherintly worth a lot more than a spec who has to stop healing to do damage.

- - - Updated - - -

Healers got their damage buffed because so many healers refused to spec dps for questing/levelling and Blizzard caved to their complaints and gave healers viable ways to do meaningful damage.
The only way to get rid of the "healers have to damage-meta"' is to remove the ability for healers to do (meaningful) damage.

Yes do that. Not like the rota of any spec is difficult to learn. Click what blinks.

[Rageonit]

Either give every healer a way to deal easy consistent damage or don't. Some specs like druids have it way harder to even reach close to the dps of disc and shamans. It is just stupid. Yes it is the player... in a way.
The summed up damage of the healers is another DD. Sometimes even more. Which makes the whole fight shorter. So if you are close to some enrage timer and have to think about taking the druid or the shaman. You take the shaman/disc or hpala.
Nerf the damage into the ground. Done. No need to do damage because it is basically worthless and with free respeccing no healer needs to do damage anyway.

Nerfing healer damage to the ground is equivalent to making healer damage spells useless - why have them, then? Why not just remove all healer damage spells if they do close to nothing? Would make sence, wouldn't it?

Shame you don't think about the whole picture here. It would affect every facet of the game. PvP - no healer damage in arenas. Thinking that would be good for the game boggles my mind! So fun to do nothing when you have an opportunity to do something, because your team is topped off. Well at least you can cheer for them. No ability to do solo PvE content in healer spec, simple quests, Thorgast, whatever - gone, just like that! And if you play on a PvP server and get attacked in open world while being in healer spec? Well bad luck, you could have respecced. Have fun healing yourself until your mana pool dries out.

But yeah, lets make it super annoying to ever be in a healer specs outside of raids/dungeons because the meta is to cast a damage spell when you have nothing to do.

[VinceVega]

Nerfing healer damage to the ground is equivalent to making healer damage spells useless - why have them, then? Why not just remove all healer damage spells if they do close to nothing? Would make sence, wouldn't it?

Shame you don't think about the whole picture here. It would affect every facet of the game. PvP - no healer damage in arenas. Thinking that would be good for the game boggles my mind! So fun do nothing when you have an opportunity to do something, because your team is topped off. Well at least you can cheer for them. No ability to do solo PvE content in healer spec, simple quests, Thorgast, whatever - gone, just like that! And if you play on a PvP server and get attacked in open world while being in healer spec? Well bad luck, you could have respecced. Have fun healing yourself until your mana pool dries out.

But yeah, lets make it super annoying to ever be in a healer specs outside of raids/dungeons because the meta is to cast a damage spell when you have nothing to do.

Enough for open world to kill am mob very slowly. Useless in raids. Right now i can play basically as DD.

First: Fuck PvP^^
Second: I always am a advocate to completly seperate PvE and PvP. Make it an aura for raids and dungeons. Done.

Also: Don't play Healer in Open World. It is litterally one click. Healers are healers. No DDs.

[Temp name]

They should first get read of the "healers have to do dmg"-meta.

Hate that. So much.

Power wise every spec can shine at some boss. Utility wise... yeah... stuff like spiritlink is just way above the other Healers. Tranq is powerful. For a really short time. And you cannot move. Which is difficult as most bosses need you to move basically 100% of the time.

You don't need to move 100% of the time, or even most of the time..

But let's say that they get rid of healer's ability to do damage. What are they supposed to do during downtime then? In any decent raid you're not even healing most of the time, and same in m+. Most of my time is spent dpsing because there's no damage going out because people actually know how to avoid it. If I can't do damage, what am I supposed to do then? /dance? Waste mana by healing people who have full health? Sit around with my thumb up my ass?