A thought on healing in Cataclysm PvP

[Bobzor]

So in Lich King, it's nearly impossible for three DPS to survive long enough to get a kill on a team with a healer, even with CC. I agree to this. The team with the healer will play conservatively and prevent damage where possible.

In cata they will do the same thing, but they will have vastly improved health and burst will theoretically be lower. It could be argued that the 3 dps team is even less likely to score a kill.

However they also have the increased health working for them. Even if a healer goes oom quickly though, these three people are going to have to survive through 2-3 health bars' worth of damage, without being healed themselves. I'm not sure they can do that. Granted I have no idea but I know even if you put my pally healer ( http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Gl%C3%B8ry ) with 2 DPS and put me up against a triple DPS team and only gave me half mana and told me I wasn't allowed to drink or use Plea...I still think I'd win 90% of the time. And that's with Wotlk burst. (ahh, but that argument works both ways, because that same wotlk burst and low hp pools work vs the triple dps team too...so really there's no way to know)

to sum up I think that it will likely be 2 dps + 1 healer vs 2dps +1 healer. whoever goes oom first loses, since you can't burst a guy down.

Burst damage won't be as high, but neither will burst healing. So if you bring a guy down to 30% he won't be back up at 100% as soon as his healer is out of the fear. Mana will obviously be a great part but I don't think all games will end with 1 healer going oom. I at least hope they won't.
AND NO!! U underestimate the power of wizards and chickens! After playing 3 DPS on a respectable MMR of a bit above 2,3 and an actual rating of 2,2 and comming out with a proper win/loss ratio after 50-ish games I am now a strong beliver of 3 DPS teams. IT was the most ridiculous and fun comp I've ever played.

[Frygar]

So in Lich King, it's nearly impossible for three DPS to survive long enough to get a kill on a team with a healer, even with CC. I agree to this. The team with the healer will play conservatively and prevent damage where possible.

In cata they will do the same thing, but they will have vastly improved health and burst will theoretically be lower. It could be argued that the 3 dps team is even less likely to score a kill.

However they also have the increased health working for them. Even if a healer goes oom quickly though, these three people are going to have to survive through 2-3 health bars' worth of damage, without being healed themselves. I'm not sure they can do that. Granted I have no idea but I know even if you put my pally healer ( http://www.wowarmory.com/character-s...&cn=Gl%C3%B8ry ) with 2 DPS and put me up against a triple DPS team and only gave me half mana and told me I wasn't allowed to drink or use Plea...I still think I'd win 90% of the time. And that's with Wotlk burst. (ahh, but that argument works both ways, because that same wotlk burst and low hp pools work vs the triple dps team too...so really there's no way to know)

to sum up I think that it will likely be 2 dps + 1 healer vs 2dps +1 healer. whoever goes oom first loses, since you can't burst a guy down.

Ya you're probably right about 3v3 being mostly 2DPS + 1 healer, although I still think 3 DPS could work better than it does on WotLK (and I'm not necessarily talking exclusively about arenas, just healers in groups generally).

The main reason I continue to think this way is because in WotLK damage was bursty but so was healing. So if someone bursted you for 20k, a healer could have you back up in 2 or 3 GCDs, not even mentioning an absorb or reactive heal (PoM, ES) on you already. In Cataclysm, healing numbers are quite low compared to outgoing damage (at least at the moment) so healing has changed from "get back to 100%" to "keep above 0%". So using our 3v3 example, it basically comes down to: can the healer delay the inevitable OOM and the death of himself or one of his group members long enough for his DPS buddies to down one enemy.

And let me just be clear: I am not dooming healers in Cataclysm. I'm simply trying to point out that their overall PvP "power" has decreased due to the things mentioned in the first post. And so I would ask the question: does this matter to you if you're a healer? And is this going to discourage current healers who maybe see the grass being greener on the DPS/Tank side of PvP?

[Direpanda]

I would point you to some discussion amongst healers that healing has become a lot more complex.

Granted, this is usually PVE discussion, but hear me out! Wrath raid healers are used to spamming heals, because incoming damage is huge and mana regen isn't a problem. But there's a common theme running through Cata-healing discussion on all classes: if you spam heals like you do in Wrath, you'll go OOM very quickly. You absolutely must triage properly, accept that group members may not be at 100%, and use the right heal for the job.

Healers coming out of Wrath PVP, similarly, are used to huge burst, particularly in the higher brackets. Although they don't spam quite so mindlessly as PVE healers, they are trained to keep teammates topped off, if at all possible and safe, to minimize the chances of their teammates getting gibbed within the space of a CC.

With larger health pools and lower burst, perhaps healers in Cata PVP will have to adjust to a new paradigm where you deliver the right heal at the right time, rather than firing off heals whenever anyone drops below 90%.

This is not to say that healing isn't undertuned in Cata PVP; I'm not in the beta and lack high-level healing experience anyway, so I can't make an accurate assessment. But perhaps the problem is the player, not the class. Particularly with the damage-dealing talents high in Resto/Holy trees and things like no-cooldown Exorcism, Druids healing in caster form, etc, it looks to me like healers in Cata PVP will be expected to contribute substantially with damage and CC, with their healing skills and talents being much less of a focus.

At any rate, the thesis of the OP—that healers' relative value will be closer to DPS—seems like it will bear out in some form. I don't expect healers to disappear entirely, but perhaps healer-less teams will be less of a joke/gimmick.