Raid Rx: Thoughts on the next expansion and healers
by Matt Low 
Oct 28th 2011 at 9:00PM
Wow, what a truly fantastic BlizzCon! Had a blast at the WoW Insider party meeting all of you. I want to take a moment to fire some shout-outs to everyone who approached me just to say hello. It's quite humbling!
With the new Mists of Pandaria expansion on the horizon, has anything really changed for healing? We didn't really experience much in terms of a philosophy change. In fact, healing itself was hardly even addressed at all. So what gives? What can we expect for healers going into 5.0? Not much, sadly, but read on anyway.
Healing changes or (lack thereof)
I don't remember anything of significance healing-related being asked during the Q&A's. The one on Thursday with the developers wasn't any better. I guess we'll know more about healing at a later date.
Either way, from what I can tell, the current healing philosophy and approach is going to carry over into the next expansion. This means there isn't going to be any new ridiculous learning curve again. You're not going to be frazzled going into the new dungeons or anything like that. You've had at least an expansion to learn and get used to the present healing model. We'll be going back to using our small heal, medium heal and big heal again for single-target burst healing requirements. It isn't like Firelands, where we can afford to be a little more inefficient. I think once we set foot inside some of the normal mode or challenge mode encounters, we'll start getting some additional healing varieties.
Are you ready to heal heroics with next to no mana again? I know I am! That's OK, though. Just like in the current tiers, once we get some heroics these levels of mana management can be relaxed a little. We just need some gear; then we can go back to being inefficient again.
New talent system
It is extremely early to be critical of something like this. I'm cautiously optimistic that it'll turn out positive for all of the healing classes. I personally think priests and shaman won this one. I didn't see much in the way of druid healing talents, though. There was quite a large number of talents related to DPS stuff. Naturally they're far from over yet. But I certainly see the potential in such a system like this.
Priests will virtually be the ultimate trolling class now, between Life Grip and Void Swap. From my understanding, though, Void Swap will automatically switch health with a target player. I'm guessing when that effect ends, the health pool switches will occur. Notice we've gotten a few more healing cooldowns now, with examples like the new Shaman Healing Tide totem.
Paladins are already getting several big changes in the 4.3 patch to some of their healing spells and abilities. Not sure if holy is going to experience similar shake-up in the new expansion. Doesn't seem like there's a whole large selection of holy talents everywhere.
The monk
Hands up how many of you plan on rerolling a monk? I'm one of them. At least, I would like to powerlevel one from 1 to 85 within days. I'm just leery of the fact that we have yet to see any monk healing tool kits out there. From my understanding, their "healing gimmick" is going to be different than the other healing classes we have going on right now. Having another class other than a discipline priest that can heal while DPSing could be fun. We know that DPS healing is a possibility. It is frowned upon in some circles, but we know that DPS healing is a possibility (and for some, a standard). Makes me wonder if it'll end up being something like where monks can smash in the enemy's face and then simply use their healing spells on the rest of the group. Who knows?!
I did get a chance to demo the monk while at BlizzCon. These furry guys are fun to play. I only wish I had more hands-on time with them as they level up, but they were gradually pulling out monks fairly early. Rerolling as a Pandaren is going to have to wait until after I recover my raid symptoms.
Oh, one more thing.
Raid Finder tool
Not exactly expansion-related, but the new Raid Finder tool came out on the patch 4.3 PTR servers and I wanted to give it a spin. After clicking through the some 14 times that a player dropped the group and prompting me if I wanted to continue, I said yes and was able to get in finally. Looks like the Raid Finder composition uses two tanks, six healers and 17 assorted DPS players. Appears to be a really intelligent system, actually. The only downside is getting all 25 players to hit ready at the same time. It might take a while, as there are some players who just like to keep dropping and such.
The Raid Finder is going to be a nightmare on live if it stays the way it is during a stream.
Anyway, that's all I have to add for this week. Did you have any specific healing-related questions or any thoughts of our current healing meta-games? I guess we're just keeping the current healing approach the same for the time being.
I for one cannot wait for this expansion to be over. Anyone else just want to kill Deathwing and move on already?
Need advice on working with the healers in your guild? Raid Rx has you covered. Send your questions about raid healing to mattl@wowinsider.com. For less healer-centric raiding advice, visit Ready Check for advanced tactics and advice for the endgame raider.
Filed under: Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Everclear Oct 28th 2011 9:04PM
I've been ready to kill Deathwing and move on from Cataclysm for months now.
Joe P Oct 28th 2011 9:15PM
You'll be powerlevelling your monk from 1 to 90 actually :p
sarah Oct 28th 2011 9:52PM
@Joe P - Maybe he wants to take his time questing 85-90, hrm? ;p
Aftermathmatical Oct 28th 2011 9:58PM
whoa different font. changes my world man..
Matthew Oct 28th 2011 11:30PM
me too! I thought it was my newly updated browser at first. But luckily the rest of the WoW Insider series was that good ol' font.
WaterRouge Oct 28th 2011 10:18PM
I think I'll be rolling a Waveweaver like many other healers but my current main, a Tauren paladin, will probably remain at the top. The strait-up heals is just what I prefer.
My only concern is that whether dps to heal is effective or ineffective for monks that the community loses its "not arcane = bad" mindset. I realize there have been improvements but I can already imagine all of the pugs who say "you're not a REAL healer. gtfo" or something similar.
Toranja Oct 29th 2011 1:28AM
I say the biggest problem the game faces right now is what the community thinks about one's playstyle. Blizz is trying to make the playstyle you pick to be as worthy as every other, but still, the community (which unites only to bash on your talents, gear, gemming, enchanting, spells and... oh, well, everything you get to choose, bet they'll bash on your transmog choices when 4.3 lands) won't mind their own business.
Get off my lawn, damn trolls! *shakes cane*
Saeadame Oct 28th 2011 10:20PM
Well from the sample healing ability on the monk preview (Statue of the Jade Serpent), it'll be like, you place this object, and then whenever you do damage it heals people for you, apparently you can place up to three in different locations, so if we were doing, say, rag, you could place one on the far left, the far right and in the middle and then just go at various mobs and be healing people for small amounts anywhere in the room.
Hih Oct 28th 2011 10:33PM
I can't say I'm really looking forward to the "positional-based healing" of the Monk. In 5 mans at least, people never click the lightwell, people are only clumped up together enough for chain heal if they're melee, or by simple coincidence if ranged, and Light of Dawn? Forget it. Maybe if you have 3 melee dps in your group. And it's not as though people flock to Efflorescence (I'm never going to spell that right on the first try, ever. ty Firefox) or HW: Sanctuary for the ground based heals.
So I'm really hoping that Monks have good direct heals in addition to their "positional based" heals, for 5 mans at least.
Saeadame Oct 28th 2011 11:04PM
@Hih - the statue has a 20 yard range (I'm assuming that's in a circle, so it's a 40 yard range from farthest point to farthest point, although it could be a 10 yard circle around the statue, I suppose), so people don't actually have to be that close to get the heal. If you put it between the melee and the range somewhere, they'd both probably get the benefit easily.
Hih Oct 28th 2011 10:23PM
"Are you ready to heal heroics with next to no mana again?"
Ugh, this is what I'm least looking forward to. Heroics when everyone was ilevel 333 (usually cheating with pvp gear) were brutal, with drinking every other pull. They got rid of the defense cap so that tanks didn't feel like they needed to be geared first to get gear, so I'm hoping they maybe ease mana regen a little (maybe make a piecemeal equation or something? Something so that spirit is more valuable up to a certain number, then drops off after that?)
Anyway, it's hopefully a moot point now if they want MoP heroics to be more in line with Wrath heroics, with challenges from the timed runs.
gymboy91 Oct 28th 2011 11:15PM
Ya that is what I was thinking too: standard dungeons were supposed to be easier and the people who want an extra challenge can do the timed runs
I tried healing at the beginning of Cataclysm...it didn't go well...my priest went shadow and I leveled alts instead (my mage even became my main)...now with better gear for almost everyone (and people understanding fights better) I've enjoyed healing again...I hope they make the main dungeons easier and tweak challenge modes to give more difficulty.
I do want there to be difficulty with healing...I just want to have the choice some days :)
Hillazon Oct 29th 2011 12:11AM
Was there anything less fun than trying to heal pug Cata heroics as a disc priest when the heroics were new and you were in 333 gear with minimal spirit, and much of that from reforged hit?
No. There was nothing less fun.
Notsoscary1 Oct 29th 2011 1:11AM
Healing in cata is what drove me and my holy priest away from the game after 6 years. Like the person above me said, I hope things revert back to wrath a bit more. The mechanics and rotations with high health and crappy expensive heals were not my cup of tea.
The talent overhaul will determine if I come back but unfortunately the article makes it sound like it will be more like cata still. Again it's early so I'm hoping. I do want to come back and am rooting for blizzard. These past 8 months have been lonely!
matt Oct 29th 2011 8:40AM
i'll bet the healing in early MoP 5-mans will not be as punishing. I always got the feeling that Blizz looked at ICC an thought healing had been that way the entirety of wrath. because of that they over-shot a little. Now that they have seen it come full circle again in cata the will probably be a little more responsible. There is no reason that healing should be 10+ times more difficult than dps/tanking. anybody who doesn't think they overshot on the difficulty of healing never tried to heal a Cata Heroic @ ilvl 329.
dj.clayden Oct 29th 2011 10:57AM
I actually think my favourite healing experience(s) this exspansion was/were healing the 5-man heroics when everyone was low geared :/ It was pretty different to raiding, and it's the first time I've ever had 5-mans be anything other than a complete walkover (I joined at the end of 3.1 and hit 80 at the end of 3.2).
Personally I'm looking forward to gearing up from scratch again and tackling those timed runs for some prestige (not that we'll be setting any server firsts, given my current guild is on the same faction/realm as Envy who got world 3rd this tier).
thegreatoak Oct 28th 2011 11:36PM
I hope they end up making the LFR accept tool work as groups. Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, etc. Some groups will have tanks; some won't. Once your Group has been assembled and accepted, it will stay in a ready state that will automatically teleport you as soon as five groups have assembled.
I'd rather have someone from an accepted/assembled group decide to take a two minute break just as we got teleported into the instance than have to time out half a dozen times and wait for a full set of non-afk players to be at the top of the queue.
I do understand the issue of wanting to go as a larger-than-group-of-five; however, I also know that these things are programmable. It's a couple extra conditions and cases and testing out a few more possibilities (though still taking appreciable time to build and test), but I'd rather have something with polish now than get used to an annoying reality for a year or two and later have the polish come out only after a cumulative of days and days of player time has been wasted.
Large numbers of pre-grouped members could be entered as one entity controlled by the leader of that group, with the leader being the only one who has to accept to get that group into the instance. Even though this could mean x number of player are afk when they get ported in, it's 25 man PuG raiding: there are going to be more breaks of play and waiting around than in guild runs and 10 mans.
/twocents
Sqtsquish Oct 29th 2011 1:44AM
You ready again for healers that healed during the firelands and demon soul eras of cata to complain about having to watch their mana at the beginning of MoP? Some people like to mindlessly mash buttons and call it therapeutic after their "long day" and will complain when they cannot mindlessly succeed any longer.
John Oct 29th 2011 1:56AM
Some people like to continually deny that some aspects of Cata are no-fun zones and that they ever had any trouble with them, or to brag that the monotony of doing 1, maybe 2 heroics in an evening was really amazingly psychically rewarding. Those people would go away if they were unmasked for the 'better than you' posers that they are.
Sqtsquish Oct 29th 2011 2:13AM
I like being rewarded for doing things right, not for trying and getting it wrong. I am ALWAYS trying to help people with whatever they are willing to get help with. Having to care about what you do as a healer is one of those things that I believe should reward people for doing it right, as opposed to just walking in and spamming any kind of heal endlessly however you feel.
It is fun besting something that challenged your skills- yes Cata challenged my skills at times- I died some, I got frustrated, but the times I stuck with it and my group made it through 'WOULD HAVE" been worth it, if we got better and more rewards for getting it right.
I play to win, no doubt about it- but what does winning mean to you if it was a foregone conclusion? Gear? Gear is a means to and end- the end being able to take on and challenge another boss further down the road.