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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGhostcrawler on 3.1 healing team raid composition
by Amanda Miller 
Mar 12th 2009 at 11:00AM
Ghostcrawler has outlined the way in which healing teams will be chosen and organized for Ulduar in both 10 and 25-man raids, and it's very encouraging. In 10-man Ulduar, GC expects that we'll want to bring three healers, and claims that they "intend for you to be able to take any 3 healers." This means that even smaller guilds with only enough players to form a 10-man group will be able to work with the healers they have, rather than feeling the need to recruit specific classes.
In 25-man Ulduar, Ghostcrawler mentions that there will be "more pressure to have every player in the role that most emphasizes their strengths" and that we'll "want a mix of healers."
This sounds like a fairly flexible plan, allowing for groups to recruit different healing classes, and allow healers to spec into different roles, such as group healing vs. single target. It also suggests that Blizzard is not planning at this time to homogenize the healing classes any further, unlike the tanking classes.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Classes, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Nikkodemus Mar 12th 2009 11:54AM
I am tired of Holy Pally QQ on the forums. Not all classes are the same. Yes, my Priest probably has more utility and options... But my alternative is to spec Shadow for lackluster DPS. Paladins can decide to become fully capable DPS OR Tanks!
The overwhelming versatility of Paladins may be refelected that in a particular role, like healing, they may not be the most versatile. Boo hoo.
Nick S Mar 12th 2009 12:50PM
It's hard being a Holy Pally - no other healing class has their effectiveness mitigated so totally by common and simple mechanics like Vortex or any AoE damage in general. (Also by stuns, silences, and anything else that keeps us from healing even momentarily.)
Multiple-target Sacred Shield helps a lot with this problem. Infusion of Light helps (Holy Shock crit a DPS in need, then make up the lost time on the tank with a hasted Holy Light.) Blizzard is taking both of those tools away, and Paladins rightly feel that it's a change which will push us even further into a class you don't want to bring for fights that aren't Patchwerk or Instructor Raz.
Candina@WH Mar 12th 2009 11:37AM
On a more serious note.
Raid Healing balance still needs to be thought through, when organizing even 25 man Naxx.
You can PUG any 5-6 healers into an OS/Vault run
But, just between you, me and the FBI (they're everywhere man!), You can't take 5 resto shammy into a patchwerk fight and expect anything but pain.
Resto Shammies big heal = too slow. Chain heal = to slow. Small Heal = To little, to late.
And for the record telling the boomkin and the shadow priest to help heal patch just means everyone dies a little later than otherwise....
Oh, and btw, Make sure you cocky, loudmouthed pally tank actually has on his TANKING GEAR or all you're going to have is a pally smear at patchworks feet.
But I'm not bitter.
Verit Mar 12th 2009 3:58PM
You might have terrible shamans... I've actually two healed 25 man vault with another resto shaman.
Also 2 healed 10 man patchwerk with another resto shaman. Its really pretty simple - keep up earthshield on both tanks (thats 3000/5000 hp when it procs without casting anything), and just spam lesser healing wave.
When tidal wave kicks in (and it has a 100% chance to - if you have actually specced resto) healing wave and lesser healing wave are pretty fast actually. 30% haste is almost like having heroism up almost all the time.
Honestly watching other shamans in pugs - are pretty terrible. They don't drop proper totems for the pull or boss in question, they are terrible at keeping earthshield up on the correct target etc.
Candina@WH Mar 12th 2009 4:06PM
Verit:
/agree only the offtank I was healing on patch-25 had his earth sheild up. but when patch was hitting for 20k+, 2k procs are not worth mentioning.
Problem with 2 of the resto shammys was gear. One was ignorance. Me, I have never had a problem on patch before. But they gave me the DK offtank to heal, so your mileage may very. I think the other resto shammys were attempting to throw chain/healing wave.
But it could just have been gear.
And an idiot pally. did I mention the idiot pally?????
JustSomeGuy Mar 12th 2009 11:56AM
>In 25-man Ulduar, Ghostcrawler mentions
>that there will be "more pressure to have
>every player in the role that most emphasizes
>their strengths"
What exactly does this mean? No Shadow Priests for DPS, for example?
A little more explaination is required on this one, I think.
bundee Mar 12th 2009 12:05PM
He mentions "player" and "role." I play balance for raids and feral for pvp. I have some feral raiding gear and thus you could say I could DPS as feral to some degree. This isn't my strongest role, however, because I have more experience as a caster druid.
Antanatar Mar 12th 2009 12:13PM
"allow healers to spec into different roles such as group healing vs single target"
!!!!!! Has this guy actually understood how blizz is nerfing holy pallies back to the bad old days of single target, single key, keyboard head bashing?
@Nikkodemus, have you considered that the PVE Holy pallies may have a point discussing how dissapointed they are in being constantly nerfed due to their percieved abilities in PVP. (BTW how many of the top WOW arena teams have a holy pally?) answer, not as many as the "OMG holy pallies are OP brigade would have you believe.
I just wish blizz would completely separate PVP and PVE talents and specs.
Aaron A. Mar 12th 2009 1:37PM
I read it more or less the same way Bundee did; it doesn't mean that Cat Druids won't be able to find work, but it does mean that you shouldn't expect that Feral Druid to heal, unless he/she can swap specs (and possibly gear), and has enough healing experience to support the raid.
A note on player experience:
When I respecced my DK to a tanking build, I ran several normal dungeons and Heroic UK & Nexus multiple times before I was comfortable calling myself a tank in the LFG channel. People sometimes asked me why an 80 would go to normal DTK, but once I'd explained it we were on our way. When my Shadow Priest gets to endgame, I'll likely do the same thing with her, healing regular Nexus at level 80 so she can tinker with gear, talents, and keybindings without endangering the party too much. If you've just respecced to a raiding build that's vastly different from your leveling build, don't be afraid to back down the difficulty for a few days.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Mar 12th 2009 12:00PM
I think they need to first create a balance first between what the class' job is.. and then add the extra stuff that isn't needed but is fun to have so that people can later say, "We didn't need that ret pally, but they had some nice extras that did the trick we needed.. or we didn't need that rogue, but he had some nice extras that helped out."
FifthDream Mar 12th 2009 12:02PM
If Blizzard "intends" you to do certain things, why don't they just draw up a checklist and post it somewhere, and further, just not allow you to enter a raid unless you meet their criteria? I thought WoW was a game, not conform-to-our-intentions exercise.
bundee Mar 12th 2009 12:09PM
All games require you to conform to the intentions of their creators. Nintendo intends for you not to die in the lava pits as you're rushing to kill Bowser and save the princess. If you can't meet certain criteria then success isn't for you.
Planning a raid requires actual planning, including mana regeneration, buffs, debuffs, heal types, damage types, et al.
Verit Mar 12th 2009 4:33PM
I actually agree here - Blizzard clearly doesn't like it when players find some solution to their encounter they didn't intend or don't like. Guilds working on Sunwell (and naxx before that) was full of strange solutions to counter bosses.
But then - they never come out and say anything when releasing content. They never give tips, strategies, or hints to a single encounter (except loken) so why do they get mad when players seemingly exploit a boss by using some neglected craft (haste drums come to mind) or ability?
After all that - I'd bet they couldn't beat some of their own creations...
BitterCupOJoe Mar 12th 2009 12:43PM
It's not a matter of being "the most versatile." It's a matter of being versatile at all. If the fight doesn't consist of a whole lot of damage one a couple of targets, a holy paladin is way, way out of their element, particularly with the upcoming changes to sacred shield. I've got a holy paladin as my main and at least one mid-60+ healer of the other classes, and it's night and day. The holy light glyph that gives a very small amount of healing to the targets in the immediate vicinity of the original target helps slightly, but it's not really enough.
It's not that holy paladins want to be the best at every flavor of healing; we are far and away the best tank healers (albeit less far and away with the rise of discipline priests), and we have, generally, very good mana efficiency, but that's it. No hots, no real AoE, and only one ability that can be used on the move, with the potential for one additional on-the-move spell if holy shock crits. With the very minimal healing that Flash of Light does compared to Holy Light, there's not even a good selection of single target heals; it's just spam-holy-light-and-pray most of the time. Given the changes to paladin mechanics, holy paladins aren't even the ones usually casting Judgment of Light in most raids. That's left to ret paladins, whose gear scales better for the spell.
So, yes, there are reasonable complaints about holy paladin healing. They are not QQ in the sense that they're unfair. No other healing class/spec has as limited a toolset as holy paladins. While I'd like to see holy paladins get both and AoE and an HoT, albeit neither as powerful/efficient as the other classes, I'd settle for one or the other. On my holy priest, I have 11 spells to work with, and I'll use 6 to 8 of them in a given fight. On my paladin, I have 6, and realistically, I'll use 4 of those (Holy Light, Sacred Shield, Beacon of Light, Cleanse) on a regular basis in a given fight. And, to be honest, 2 of those spells have no purpose other than to make the other one function better, and are cast every time they're about to expire. There's no decisions to be made there about efficiency vs. cast time vs. cooldown vs. etc.
And to the argument "well, you can just spec something else," uh, no. I like healing. Admittedly, I like tanking relatively well, and I'll be dual speccing in protection when 3.1 drops, but that doesn't help with the underlying problem that holy healing is, well, unvaried. I won't say "boring," because there's a certain excitement to having to work with a limited toolset. However, I will say that I find priest healing to generally be more satisfying, and I have little doubt that if paladins had even an inefficient HOT and an inefficient AoE that most complaints from holy paladin players would go away, and it wouldn't mean stepping on the toes of other classes, no more than a resto shaman that gets stuck tank healing or a holy priest that throws renews in a HOT-specific aren't stepping on the toes of holy paladins or resto druis respectively.
Bernabeu Mar 12th 2009 1:46PM
OH! I finally get it. the goal in 3.1 is to break all of the healers to the point where it doesnt matter who you bring. excellent! please correct me if i'm wrong, but you can bring any 3 healers for naxx (even at the most basic gear levels). this isnt encouraging at all.
omgboobies Mar 12th 2009 1:41PM
boobies
Murdock Mar 12th 2009 1:56PM
In my 10-man I've always run 2 healers, we did it in Kara, ZA and now Naxx. We've had a few issues on certain fights due to poisons, curses, etc. but we get around those. Are most people running 3 healers? Am I making things overly hard?
I've found that having that 6th DPS in there generally can make up for the healer by dropping the boss faster. I'm curious what do most people run with?
Currently we have a Holy Priest and a Resto Druid. The druid is my GF and I play a prot-warrior, we've been doing this over 3 years so we've got it down pretty well which I think helps.
Angus Mar 12th 2009 2:50PM
This is the problem.
They are nerfing the snot out of healing mana regen so that 2 healers will not be able to do it. You'll need 3 or the 2 have to be incredible, the dps incredible, and the tanks very well geared.
We have 4 healers in my guild.
So we can't do 2 10 mans until all our dps is up to par.
We already can't do 25 mans.
This is very discouraging. We were looking to start pushing our way into naxx 25, and using uldar 10 as a way to help, but I'm going to have to bench half my players until they can do well. Since all we ever see is that stupid DK token drop, they are going to be waiting a long time. I still don't have shoulders or a head and I am one of the MTs, they just haven't dropped.
Murdock Mar 12th 2009 4:22PM
Well hopefully I can keep far enough ahead in the gear curve. Both her and I are geared to do 10-man Maly but are just now getting into the first 2 wings of Naxx. We waited on some personal friends to run Naxx with so we got pretty geared in the meantime. I really hope we don't need to add another healer, but perhaps I'll start recruiting now before everyone realizes they need one to.
hpavc Mar 13th 2009 3:47AM
seems more like they want you to bring three different healers actually the way buffers are laid out and the totem/blessing changes.