#19 - Sept. 19, 2010, 5:31 a.m.
Q u o t e:
Let me try again....They are changing the game, for what they think is better. They have done a pretty terrible job explaining why it is so much better. "Better game as a whole", "fun triage", "more challenging", "less spammy", are the things thrown out on every single reply from GC.
"Better game as a whole": As a healer, I beg to differ. Ok, I won't beg, I'll play the part of the game that apparently improved.
"Better game as a whole" doesn't explain anything. It's just a goal, and one that's hard to argue. Whether these changes will make a better game is a more interesting discussion.
Q u o t e:
"Fun triage": Wtf do you think healing is now? I have fun healing people, and always have to triage.
You're fortunate if you have to triage. Many healers don't today. The typical experience is to use your fastest heal on everyone who takes any damage. You may get some amount of triage by choosing who to heal, but you won't be losing that either. If you are really choosing today which of your many heals to use, then A) you're in the minority, and B) you won't really have to relearn things for Cataclysm. You'll be ahead of the game.
The Lich King game today has additional problems. Since overhealing doesn't matter, mana regen doesn't matter. Since overhealing is typical, large heals also don't matter, which means critical heals are often wasted. This makes two of the stats that appear on your gear (Spirit and crit) not attractive, which in turn makes the minigame of choosing which piece to use and how to gem and enchant them less compelling as well.
If you just really think it's fun to just cast one heal over and over with no real repercussions for doing so while stacking a single stat on all your gear, then I guess I'll just have to accept that. It's hard for us to understand why you find that satisfying though.
Q u o t e:
"More challenging": I found heroic putricide challenging enough, thanks. The guild wants to press on to heroic sindy, I'm not sure I really need that much challenge. :) but we'll see.
Putricide was plenty challenging, but the challenge came from movement for the most part. We don't think the game is more fun if everyone has say 1-2 buttons and all of the challenge comes from the rigors of the encounter. To some extent, we've been forced to rely so much on movement fights because we can't challenge the healers otherwise. With their near-infinite mana pools and very fast spells, they would be able to handle a wide variety of situations without being challenged.
Q u o t e:
"Less spammy": So, I'm supposed to stand around and do what, exactly?
When we say "spammy" in this context, we mean using the same spell over and over. We're not talking about sitting around on your hands waiting for your mana to come back (and without the five second rule, that won't do much for you anyway).
Think of playing a healer like a real time strategy game. In the Lich King environment, your strategy is basically to crank out infantry as fast as you can and never let up. No matter what your opponent does, your job is to counter him with infantry. It doesn't matter what kinds of units he makes or whether he's going for a fast or slow buildup. Just make infantry. If your race has upgrades that affect things other than infantry, obviously they are of no use to you and you should ignore them. Cost is largely irrelevant too, since you are making one solider over and over.
In the Cataclysm environment, we want you to make a variety of units. Sometimes infantry will do the job well. Other times you may need to mix in some cavalry or siege units as well. In fact, you need to tailor what you're making to the environment. Sometimes you want cheap units. Sometimes you want expensive ones. We want you to consider your upgrades as well. Investing all of them on infantry will make less sense because you have other types of units as well. Yet you won't have enough resources so you'll have to make a decision.
That is really what we're trying to get out of the new healing model: making decisions. We think players have more fun when they are making decisions. When you make the right decision based on the information available, you feel smart. When you make the wrong decision, you feel dumb, and you might cause the rest of the group to have to work harder, or even ultimately cause a wipe.
Blizzard is investing a lot into this change... they must have better reasons then that! I want them to sell it! Front page headline "New Improved Healing System". If they can't do that, then maybe they should question all the hard work they are doing.