Breakfast Topic: Healers, are you anxious about Cataclysm content?
by Evan Casey 
Dec 11th 2010 at 8:00AM
I'm a healer. Just a healer. My guildmates have two characters, three, four or more. I've got an addon that does nothing but tell me who someone is when they sign in so I don't have to tax myself connecting one druid to another paladin. Me, I've just got a priest with a full set of healing gear and a solid set of DPS gear, if the need arises. Like many other healers out there, I've gone through heroics and raids; even ICC doesn't pose all that much of a challenge anymore. When you know what's coming and when, it's just a matter of hitting your marks.
Now the whole world is changing for all of us. The banal, practiced and frankly monotonous task of keeping guildmates and PUGs alive is going to go the way of the dodo, for at least a good long while. Challenge will be in the air again, and maintaining resources will be an issue for the first time in memory since my guild first cleared Iron Council.
For some of us, and I imagine this includes myself, this is going to be quite a shock. Unless we're in heroic or hard mode raiding content, we've been able to put tape over our mana bars. Now the tape's coming off, and I'm about to be pressured into a triage mentality I don't remember ever having to maintain. Either someone was topped off or dead. Only two possibilities, only two states.
I'm very much looking forward to the pressure to maintain an even shade of gray, to keep everyone between those two absolutes. I'd love to know how the rest of the healers are feeling about the cataclysmic shift in technique that is about to be gifted to us.
| Yes, I have doubts about how quickly or how well I can learn the new style. | |
|---|---|
| Yes, I have doubts about other players' ability or willingness to adapt. | |
| No, I don't think it'll be all that different. | |
| No, I'm confident everyone will make any necessary changes fairly soon. |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Ty Dec 11th 2010 8:02AM
The Throne of Winds got me into raiding. Even thought its just 2 bosses, its a beautiful instances and Al'Akir looks badass.
WGSXFrank Dec 11th 2010 1:58PM
I am SOOOOO looking forward to The Throne of Winds. I can't wait to try it.
MM Dec 11th 2010 8:16AM
I think it'll make healing more interesting and arguably more challenging. But I think that's a good thing and players will both respond positively and adapt quickly.
Hopleaf Dec 12th 2010 7:09PM
yeah healing finally become fun! not waiting for about 6 packs to finally use some mana! though saying that dps need to adapt that their dps and not tanks, like woltk, when anyone with a dps spec would just pull and dps and barely make me move a finger! so basically its down to the dps and tanks to make sure that healers adapt well and not just pull as they used to!
ViVi Dec 11th 2010 8:20AM
I'm a little anxious about healing in Cataclysm, to be honest. I've only done one dungeon run so far in the process of leveling up my resto shammy and thankfully I had a sort-of handle on it by the time the dungeon was over. I'm hoping I can adapt to it better with more tries.
Kesh Dec 11th 2010 8:27AM
I'm not a healer, but I've done all the new heroics and started raiding last night. I have to say that the new heroics are the perfect teaching ground. They have consistent predictable damage that if your healers are capable of planning, then they can draw up an action plan of the entire fight now.
The first boss in SFK heroic is a really good example of a training boss for healers. In phase one he does a big aoe that takes everyone down to 1% but will not kill you. Your healer only needs to top you up enough to keep you alive, otherwise it's a waste of mana. Until you reach p2 at least.
Also as a pally tank I feel So much more connected with the healers now with word of glory and holy radiance. There was a vague connection in wrath, but it was mainly to rotate survival cooldowns.
Mistat Dec 11th 2010 8:24AM
I have to admit, I'm equally anxious about the DPS and Tanks learning their new roles as I am the healers. There's some serious paradigm changes for all the roles, not just healers, and any one of them not getting the idea can screw everyone.
Bossy Dec 11th 2010 8:32AM
It has always been and always will be ... the healers fault.
That's why I will do the next PVE content with my level 27 human hunter instead of my main Holy Paladin. A pity you can strike ONE healer off again. (perhaps to make a hero healer class in the next expansion .... because you are gonna need the guys).
I learned my lesson in the past.
And God damned I LOVE the Hunter too much in the BG's too! :)))
I don't mind the 30 minutes queue for dungeons as DPS: I built up my professions in between.
It's up to the other dudes now to get cursed at, spit at and jumped at.
Now mind you it wasn't always that bad, but ever since Vanilla you always had those idiots who came to spoil your fun as a healer while they stood as statues in the fire. In fact in the new LFG tool, they mostly split instead of insulting the tank or healer.
Huntard anged DPS: God I love the game NOW.
MusedMoose Dec 11th 2010 9:03AM
It's not the healer's fault when one of the DPS keeps pulling without the tank knowing, and when you ask him to stop, he says "no meaning no."
It's not the healer's fault when a (clearly new to the game) guy rushes ahead into the dungeon because he needs quest items and not only doesn't understand what he's doing wrong but won't listen when you try to tell him.
It's not the healer's fault when the level 19ish tank shows up not only with some of his armor slots empty - the guy wasn't wearing gloves, bracers, or boots, if I remember right - but what armor he is wearing is whites and greys, because he thought dungeons were for getting gear.
And finally, it's not the healer's fault when the mail-wearing class tank rolls on cloth gear and shows up wearing mostly leather.
These have all happened in groups that I've been in since the Shattering. Your "It has always been and always will be ... the healers fault" statement is, quite simply, wrong. I understand why your bad experiences might make it feel like you're always taking the blame, but still.
Kittens Dec 11th 2010 9:31AM
Umm.. guys, I don't think Bossy is saying it is 'always the healers fault' like you take it (looking at the downvoting).. rather he is talking about bad group mentality that always blames the healer for mistakes other people made, and him getting sick of that and thus giving up healing.
Basically he is talking about the same thing as MusedMoose above.
Hiwa Dec 11th 2010 9:58AM
Yep agreeing with kittens. Read the whole post--he's sick of being the punching bag and is having fun being a carefree hunter-more power to him. I upvoted you, man.
Qot Dec 11th 2010 12:07PM
If the tank dies, it's probably the healer's fault.
If the healer dies, it's probably the tank's fault.
If the DPS dies, it's probably their own damn fault.
Just for Cataclysm, I added in the "probably", since we've still got tanks and healers trying to unlearn bad habits from the end of Wrath when the general attitude in dungeons was "AoWheeee!"
I think people are quick to blame the healer, but that's mostly because "my health went to zero and the guy who makes my health go up didn't make it go up" is the observation of most DPS who are either (a) focused on getting their rotations right so they don't notice what's going on, (b) not familiar with both time and mana being precious resources for healers or (c) blissfully unaware of everything that goes on around them.
For me, the poll at the top should be multiple choice, because both of the first answers are applicable. I've gotten my gear up to average ilvl 325 with quest and reputation rewards before running anything, so that I'm ready for what'll happen in dungeons.
Tribunal Dec 11th 2010 12:31PM
It comes down to the fact that "Death" is what healers prevent/fix, but "Death" is NOT just a punishment for healers actions - it's the consequence for almost all mistakes.
And people tend to improperly correlate the two. I died, so it's instantly the healers fault, that is their job (with no thought to enrages, mechanics, poor tanking, etc, etc, any of the other things for which the consequence is also death).
Some healers do use this as an excuse, but it's the other way around way way wayyy more often.
MusedMoose Dec 11th 2010 12:57PM
I reread the post and realized that Kittens was right. I apologize, Bossy, for the confrontational tone of my first reply.
It sucks that you got fed up with healing, but after all I've read and seen, I can understand why. Enjoy life as a hunter; as you know, it's awesome. ^_^
Nathan Hughes Dec 11th 2010 2:31PM
Us healers are already hero classes ;-)
Elmouth Dec 12th 2010 12:11AM
I'm still holding up to my theory that the next hero class will be a dps/healer hybrid with an entirely new style of healing (something along the lines of blood healing, where you manipulate both the group's health and yours), something darker than the usual "good guy" team.
Dark Ranger comes to mind.
Snuzzle Dec 12th 2010 2:44AM
I have to agree, people are too quick to blame the healer, and I don't know why I keep coming back for the punishment.
I'm levelling up a new baby worgen druid and I refuse to tank until I get Swipe, so it's heals if I don't want a 45-minute long queue.
I had to let the tank die 3 times in SM because he Just. Wouldn't. Get. It.
I let him die when he pulled as I swapped specs.
I let him die when he ran recklessly ahead out of LOS to pull two rooms.
I finally let him die on the last boss as he berated me for being a noob nd a bad healer as he stood woefully in the "righteous fire."
I told him that no, on that last boss, I had went ahead and made the DPS war the tank because he actually seemed to know how to play.
Ugh. Lol at the guy for making fun of me for using Healing Touch, too. Seriously, lol.
Pyroneil Dec 11th 2010 8:40AM
I've healed a few heroics on my Holy Paladin, and I really love it. It's so much more interesting and dynamic. One thing I do notice is tanks not getting the idea. They see they have 1/2 health and start blowing cool downs. We need to retrain our tanks a bit too, let them save more CD's till closer to the end and mana is tight.
However, I think we are gonna lose quite a few healers over this, which creates more demand for me personally, but will also make raids harder to fill.
My hope is that people who are looking for a something interesting will step up and try healing with the changes. We can drop some of the poor healers and gain some awesome ones.
William Dec 11th 2010 8:42AM
People dont understand, once you hit 82, ur mana goes to crap, u drink after every pull, i play a holy paladin, a disc priest, and a resto druid, my guys are oom 50% thru bosses because the DPS just isnt there, so far, im finding healing spells not scaling well, when a tank has 150k hp, and ur largest heal only does 15k, ur at 18% mana just to top him off while everyone else is dying.
Im finding a serious need to either redo the scaling of spells, or go back to BC healing which I find takes skill, coordination, and gives a tiny bit of wiggle room.
I dont even remember vanilla being this hard to heal in.
Pyroneil Dec 11th 2010 8:48AM
Try NOT topping of the tanks. They have a very large buffer, and don't need it. If you have to drink after every pull, you either need to get a bit better gear, or learn what you are doing. I don't know as much about the other classes, as I've only messed around no my paladin so far, but usually spamming holy light and holy shock on the party will keep them about even, until 3 holy power WoG can move his health in the positive direction. Occasionally when someone gets really (