Why exactly is there a healer shortage?

If there is a healer shortage at all, I expect it is because many players are still questing. Even if they are 80, there are a ton of quests in Icecrown, a lot of dailies, and things like Hodir rep to work on. While healing specs are probably better able to solo than they were in BC, we still don't pretend they have all the damage and tools of a dps-focused character.

I also like to think that we made the dps-specs of priests, paladins, druids and shamans all a little more viable and fun to play than they used to be, so some healers may be trying those out.

Q u o t e:
Hint: PVP aside, when I do Naxx I have to sit there and pay attention to health bars instead of enjoy the game and content.

As I have frequently opined, healers who don't like healing is kind of a tough problem to solve.

There are certainly healers who do like healing. That's why they play the game. For them watching health bars IS enjoying the game. We don't want to pull what they enjoy out of the game (at least without a very good reason). The question is are there enough of those players? If they are 1 in 100, then it's a problem.

As I have also said, this is something we are spending a lot of effort to work on, but it is emphatically not the kind of change where a couple of simple tweaks get you there.

Q u o t e:
GC, have you actually talked to any player who said to you, "I just love staring at health bars for an entire boss fight. It's the best part of the game! I mean look at them go up and down. So pretty."?

Did you read the thread? Several players said they like to watch the health bars. You can’t just say things like “Every player thinks we need to change watching health bars in order to make healing more fun.” Now instead of trying to make healing fun for healers who didn’t like to heal, you risk making healing less fun for players who are happy healing now.

Q u o t e:
"If there is a healer shortage at all" are you freaking kidding me? GC do you even play this game on a real live server? I mean seroiusly I see it in trade chat all the time, LF1m healer. Come on I can't beleive you even said that.

Once again, read what other players are saying. Players in this very thread say that they don’t notice a healer shortage. Others say that they have found healers just don’t like to pug a lot because they might die a lot or get blamed when the group wipes.

These forums will work better if you stop trying so hard to just talk to me. Stop assuming that because you experience something the other 11 million people playing the game must be experiencing it as well. You are going to be disappointed every time you ask for a change that benefits you without thinking about how it affects everyone else.

Please don't turn that into "GC sez healin is fine L2P." But we have to be very careful when making any changes to core healing mechanics. We absolutely believe we can make it more fun. But it will take time and experimentation and a lot of feedack from players.