Breakfast Topic: Don't you mean the *healer* shortage?
by Allison Robert 
Dec 9th 2008 at 8:00AM
I wrote a Breakfast Topic recently concerning the somewhat ambivalent effect that Death Knights were having on the usual tanking shortage, but wasn't too surprised to see a lot of people (perhaps most) write in to note that the healer shortage on their realms was even worse. Leveling as a healer -- even with all the changes to spellpower and shared gear -- is an unattractive proposition for most, and a lot of people who healed at 70 want the chance to do something different. Past a certain point you'd give anything to be doing something that doesn't involve staring at a series of dropping health bars, and that doesn't lend itself to a large and willing population of healers cheerfully offering their services for 5-man use in LFG.My main's a Druid and I PuG a lot, so I have the luxury of being able to observe which spec is the most wanted for 5-mans (at least on my realm). As soon as dual specs become available, I'm going to have a PvE tanking and PvE healing spec set up and ready to go -- and after that, I'm going to keep a little notebook and tally how many times I get asked by a group to heal, and how many times I'm asked to tank ("But what if someone wants you to DPS?" you ask. What is this "dee pee ess" you speak of, strange one?). With an increasing number of Death Knights reaching 80, I'm willing to bet that the demand for healers is going to be even greater than it is right now, and that increasing pressure is going to be exerted on hybrid tanks (i.e. Druids and Paladins) to maintain a healing spec and gear in order to ensure that groups get off the ground faster than they do right now. I could be wrong, but I'd also be lying if that wasn't the dominant trend back on Wrath's beta with respec costs at 1c and a ton of Death Knights at 80.
Filed under: Druid, Leveling, Features, Instances, Breakfast Topics, Analysis / Opinion, Shaman, Priest, Paladin, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Mike Dec 9th 2008 8:07AM
As an Enhance Shaman I can't find a group any more. Everyone is always asking me to heal and frankly I don't want to. So I end up neverfinding groups. Sigh, the life of a shaman.
Omestes Dec 9th 2008 12:44PM
I generally get around it by starting my own groups, or knowing a pet tank or healer.
Once Dual specs come around I suppose I'll heal, with lots of warning that the last time I healed was with a druid, two years ago, so expect me to throw lots of lesser healing waves at the tank before combat even starts.
I'm having worse luck grouping with my Aff lock right now though. Enhance at least has killer DPS in 5 mans.
Jane Gray Dec 11th 2008 9:41AM
Completely wrong.
The problem isn't that we have trouble levelling as healers or that we have problems farming primals.
Its that everything else in the game became more fun in wrath (tanks dont really have to worry about threat generation, dps dont have to worry about pulling aggro... at least on single target stuff)
Healing, the hardest job in the game, got made harder by the potion nerf/the downrank nerf/ and the spirit nerf.
The problem is that most of the mistakes a raid can make are taken out on the healers and only the healers can compensate. We have zero survivability in pvp and we're just sick of all the hate from blizzard.
Smurrf_ Dec 9th 2008 8:09AM
Healing shortage? Yep. It exists. I'm in a guild of about 200-220 people, and while we're about on track for #'s of tanks & dps, the healers are definitely the sought-after commodity - especially for heroics/raids.
Ekimus Dec 9th 2008 8:17AM
/signed
We've got a small, but talented, guild ready to run 10 mans....except we've got no healers.
William Dec 9th 2008 10:30AM
I wanted to spec enhancement (shaman) to level, but every time I wanted to run an instance I couldn't get into a group (those darn DK's taking all the melee dps slots) unless I specc'd resto. So rather quickly I made it to the 50g per respec price and decided I'd just stay resto and level in instances the rest of the way. Heck I might be stuck resto-4-life now. hehe!
Vlatch Dec 9th 2008 10:41AM
I will count our guild as lucky. We have 4 amazing healers (Paladin/2 druids/Priest) already at 80. We've got 3 tanks ready to go as well, and now we're just waiting on a few more dps to start taking down the 10 man raids.
The key to keeping healers happy is to help them level. I will jump to help a resto-anything with a quest, no matter what I'm doing. We're lucky to have healers that love healing. Some of them so much that they don't even have an alt.
steve Dec 9th 2008 10:49AM
Same story with my guild about lack of healers -- 220 toons, at this point we have more DKs at 80 than healers at 80. I switched to a healer for wrath and actually like to PUG five mans, but since I dinged 80 (literally) 48 hours ago, I've spent about 9 hours in Naxx 10 and Naxx 25 with a side trip to Wintergrasp to do the raid boss there. I don't see any PUGging in my near future, just because in-guild demand for healers is so high for Naxx and heroics.
heavyd Dec 9th 2008 8:11AM
i healed with my shaman all throughout Burning Crusade and really started to enjoy. however im staying enhancement until i hit 80 and then its right back to healing, i just cant afford respeccing right now everytime someone wants me to heal. i cant wait until the dual spec thing comes out, it will make getting instances and just wow life in general a lot easier.
Darkly Dec 9th 2008 8:17AM
A lot of healers I know on my EU server are hiding from pugs and/or respeccing, and our tradechat is filled with begs for last spot healers.
Many are frustrated as the healing traditional tanks + dk's in one party is causing massive damage to be consistently taken on by two toons instead of the usual one (when they don't know what they're doing), and the healers are getting blamed for wipes as a result.
Alizar Dec 9th 2008 8:50AM
Besides, why pug? I know our guild has 16 lvl 80s, two of them are 80s . Their is enough demand just from us they could chain heroics for the next year and a half.
anonymoose Dec 9th 2008 10:27AM
Darkly, I think there are other issues making pugs unattractive, but you have certainly high lighted one dynamic. The other is this new post 3.0 "I don't believe in CC or focus firing" mentality where everyone pretends they never played pre-3.0 (and perhaps they really didn't?) and chooses to forget every method of CC & spell interruption they possess.
I personally find it tiresome as a healer when groups engage in this type of gameplay *unsuccessfully* and then want to blame me as the healer for their poor skills.
So yes, I don't tend to run with many pugs as a healer, and even within my own guild I've had to be somewhat careful. Rogues who can't kick, mages who won't counterspell, etc you have all brought this on yourselves.
Brian Dec 9th 2008 10:30AM
Call me a traditionalist, but Tank dies it's the healers fault, healer dies it's the tanks fault, DPS dies it's their own fault. When I play my holy paladin aka LOLadin, I make it abundantly clear that I will always put my health and the tanks health first and will only heal dps if I have the time and if they are not pulling an insane amount of damage on themselves. On my level 73dk I manage to dish out 1.1kdps and still not pull aggro in any instance I've run. It's possible to let the tank keep aggro but 90% of the DKs i've grouped with go balls to the wall and pull aggro then die.
Aeneas Dec 10th 2008 2:35AM
"Tank dies it's the healers fault, healer dies it's the tanks fault, DPS dies it's their own fault"
That was true a while back. But now that Blizard has got AoE damage happy with most Bosses the statement no longer doe justice.
We now have to be ready heal the whole group after a "Nova/AoE/Chain/DoT/Add..." takes the whole party down to 50% health.
Any healer that focuses simply on the tank and himself better find himself a really good mana regen set, because those fights are going to be just him and the tank do the damage ^^
I think was of the reasons for the lack o healers if that most people think we got less new "toys" to play with that the other classes...
Just my two cents
Spazmoosifer Dec 9th 2008 2:45PM
You have it all wrong.
If the tank dies, it is the healer's fault, because the healer should be healing the tank.
If the healer dies, it is the DPS' fault, cause if the healer pulls agro, the DPS should be trying to get it off them.
If the DPS dies, it is the Hunter's fault, cause they probably did something wrong.
And if the hunter dies, it is his own damn fault, cause they could just feign death :-)
Brute Dec 9th 2008 8:17AM
On my realm healers and tanks are still in short supply,most DKs just want to DPS. I have met a grand total of 1 DK tank so far and I have been pugging a lot. Healer shortage has always been worse for end game guilds as you have a high burn out rate but as far as I can tell it's no worse than BC.
Naix Dec 9th 2008 9:50AM
I am a DK death knight and I don't want to tank.
Sorry Blizzard.
Neowarcloud Dec 9th 2008 8:20AM
Yeah there is a healing shortage....I can find tanks usually within 10 mins...
I don't tend to look for healers tho because I am one!
I often see the same groups spamming for hours for a healer...
Neowarcloud Dec 9th 2008 8:21AM
Oh and I think healing is a lot more fun for most classes in WOTLK
People just need to get some basic gear and give it a shot.
stevens.ce Dec 9th 2008 11:37AM
I keep thinking I'll try it on my priest (0 to 72 as shadow - only "off-healed" in Kara), but it's that initial experimenting that worries me - getting it right in a trail and error sense. I play mostly solo, but would be happy to pug heal some groups if I had a sense of how difficult the early instances in Northrend are for a beginning group - can one who is learning to heal keep up with them, or is it one of those things where I need experience to get experience?