Healer Mechanics Discussion

#0 - Dec. 17, 2008, 11:52 p.m.

Can we have a discussion about healing mechanics? No QQ, no 3.0.8 distress, just a raw mechanics discussion. I'm not talking about class balance here, just the raw mechanics of what does and does not work as a healing implementation. Let me give you a few examples of things I think are overall issues with healing mechanics.

<added> Healer Competition:
While most of PvE is cooperative, raid healing is stupidly competetive with poor support mechanics for multiple healers healing the same damage. It also creates an environment where faster spells are artificially more valued because it means your heal actually works. To overcome this with communication and mods takes an unproportional amount of effort.

Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

Bored Healers:
1 healer can pull over a million in healing on the right fight. Fights like Noth might have 200k in healing total. You can only heal as much damage as the raid takes.

Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

From Cafooh - Healer Exhaustion:
As a healer, you have to pay 100% attention 100% of the time. Even 5-10 seconds of talking to your roommate or trying to answer a phone call can and will cause wipes and deaths. The ramifications of anything less than 100% of attention are faaaaaaar less severe as a DPSer (or even as a tank, as I am finding with the DK). You are constantly staring at the screen and reacting instantaneously for hours and hours. No other role is even close to as demanding or as straining as healing.

Leaving issues of class balance aside, if there was one thing you would change with regards to healing mechanics, did I list it? If not, what would it be?

Ghostcrawler

#13 - Dec. 18, 2008, 7:25 p.m.

Great thread. Hopefully my response won't dilute it.

Q u o t e:
added> Healer Competition:
While most of PvE is cooperative, raid healing is stupidly competetive with poor support mechanics for multiple healers healing the same damage. It also creates an environment where faster spells are artificially more valued because it means your heal actually works. To overcome this with communication and mods takes an unproportional amount of effort.

I think this is very well stated.

Q u o t e:
Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

I think that this is valid, but it is something a lot of players experience. Early on you need more tanks. Early on you need more CC (less so in LK than BC).

Q u o t e:
UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

I think there is a lot we can do to improve the default UI especially for healers. It won't solve every problem for players who use something Grid and Clique, but it can be a lot better. Just showing buffs and debuffs on the raid UI would be a nice improvement. There is a lot we can do here.

Q u o t e:
Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

I think that is a valid point. You can come up with a lot of reasons why players might want more than two specs. However this is a new feature for us and we need to see what actually happens to the game as a result before we go nuts. Down below you mention the problem of casters rolling on items without hit and a lot of spirit just because it fits the criteria of ZOMG PURP + SPELLPOWER. Now imagine that someone wants to roll on an item because one of their many specs (assume for the sake of argument that they are all legitimately used) can use it. The whole "I guess I can use that for an offspec" becomes a much bigger deal.

Q u o t e:
Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

WHY U CAN'T HEALS ME THRU WRONG THADDIUS CHARGE? HUH? I HAS TO DPS!

It is never the fault of the DPS. If they couldn't beat the enrage timer, it's because the tank didn't generate threat quickly enough. It's because they had to run out of the fire because your spellpower was too low to heal them through it. It's because you wouldn't let them Whirlwind or Volley or Arcane Explosion because you had to Shackle the bad man.

Pick your analogy. The DPS player is the quarterback, the soprano, the lead singer. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: AWESOME! BECUZ U R!

(Dear DPS, don't freak out. I'm kidding. But remember it's the healer, the tank, the decurser and the crowd-controller who are helping you be so awesome.)