Why are we punishing healers in Cata?

#0 - April 9, 2010, 7:41 a.m.

Healing in its current state is already the highest responsibility role in raids. Not only do I have to heal other people, but I also have to dispel all sorts of junk that randomly pops up. Then I have to watch my own raid positioning to avoid hazards just like everyone else, and then also correct other people's mistakes as they take fire damage. Healing is also the most under-appreciated of the 3 roles; how often does a raid ooh and aah over healing meters? I also have to have knowledge over a raid encounter in entirety. I need to know every last spell/ability that every last mob casts so I know exactly who will be taking damage, how much, and at what time. Finally I have to do all of this while managing mana, because if the healers go OOM, the raid is done.

Do we really need to reduce healing and mana regen in Cata? So far it looks like DPS gets new pew pew, tanks get better functionality, and Healers get to look forward to struggling with mana pools and more responsibilities with more dispel types. Oh, and they cost more mana. Oh, and you waste mana even if the dispel doesn't connect.

And leap of faith? Is this a joke?

I wish I didn't love healing so much.

Nethaera

#121 - April 9, 2010, 8:37 p.m.

Healers are not going to be punished. Keep in mind that what we want is more proactive healing that involves more than spamming a couple of main heals or keys. Also, health pools are being increased in Cataclysm. The idea being that while there will be burst type damage, you'll be able to adjust and heal accordingly rather than spamming heals to catch the burst as it happens.

That said, as always, we'll be keeping an eye out for actual test data to see how it all plays out.

Ghostcrawler expanded upon this a bit more over here- http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24038740321&pageNo=2&sid=1#37

Nethaera

#186 - April 9, 2010, 11:03 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Isn't what you are describing reactive healing as opposed to proactive healing? Reactive healing as I have always had it described is waiting to see who takes damage and then healing them. While proactive healing is knowing who is going to take damage and when they are going to take it so you can time the heal to land right after the damage. For example raid healing is more reactionary while tank healing more proactive healing, at least in the current situation.

I think you are trying to say you want precise healing as opposed to the equivalent of dropping a nuke to take out a single ground soldier.

I was thinking of proactive meaning, anticipatory in that more triage way (knowing you're going to need to plan out your heals as damage occurs), but yes, it can be called reactive as well. Probably not the best word to use and I'm not sure reactive is either since that can be seen as more "whack-a-mole" in nature.

In a nutshell, we want people to plan, conserve, triage the situation as it comes, be present in that moment, then react to it.

Nethaera

#208 - April 9, 2010, 11:55 p.m.

There may be some class/spec choices that currently have more of this style of play to a degree. There are others who don't really have that variety or excitement in how they heal. At this point though, I believe many people are over thinking or overreacting to these changes and will better understand how this will affect them once they get to play and see it for themselves. There are very few ways I can explain this for those that are still apprehensive about it. The idea is for you to have more to do in a smarter way and less about how fast you push a few select buttons.

Nethaera

#231 - April 10, 2010, 12:40 a.m.

Q u o t e:

If you don't mind Neth, here's a hypothetical.

4.0 comes out right now. I and 4 other people hop into H UK. This place is cakewalk right now, I can heal it while watching A-Team on Netflix!

I'll assume it'll still be trivial to run... but am I going to have to tell the group "Wait, I need to drink!" Every 2 pulls? Every boss? At all?

I couldn't really say. If you're going in at 80 with the change, you're going to be dealing with larger health pools etc for everyone and some spell/ability changes to go with it. Also keep in mind that the dungeon was designed with the changes that came with Wrath of the Lich King in mind so may not translate into quite the same experience.