Breakfast Topic: Do you enjoy strategic healing?
by Chase Hasbrouck 
Mar 5th 2012 at 8:00AM
I found this picture on Reddit's /r/wow subreddit the other day, and it reminded me of the original promise of Cataclysm. "No more spamming heals! Triage is king!" Blizzard said -- and it actually stayed that way ... for a while. Unfortunately, strategic healing took a left somewhere around Majordomo Staghelm and hasn't been heard from since.
As mana regen spiraled out of control (again), the encounter designers went to the usual place -- heavy AoE raid damage that required massive throughput, with thoughtful deliberation out the window. This has not made many people happy. A recent thread in the Healing forum showcases this, with many healers reporting general dissatisfaction following tier 11's raid content.
So what's your opinion? Do you prefer to act with a surgeon's efficiency, using the right-sized heals at the right times? Would you rather JUST HEAL ALL THE THINGS? Or do you think "monks will fix it?"
As mana regen spiraled out of control (again), the encounter designers went to the usual place -- heavy AoE raid damage that required massive throughput, with thoughtful deliberation out the window. This has not made many people happy. A recent thread in the Healing forum showcases this, with many healers reporting general dissatisfaction following tier 11's raid content.
So what's your opinion? Do you prefer to act with a surgeon's efficiency, using the right-sized heals at the right times? Would you rather JUST HEAL ALL THE THINGS? Or do you think "monks will fix it?"
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jamie Mar 5th 2012 8:06AM
As a person who doesn't play healer at all. My only experience was playing healadin as offspec a bit during Wrath. The expression "HEAL YOUR FACE OFF" was thrown about a bit as I giddy on the power of being able to heal people.
Suffice to say, I'm probably not cut out to heal in today's content. Nor should I be allowed too.
Apple Mar 5th 2012 11:27AM
I healadin'd in late Wrath. The transition to Cata was a little jarring at first, but I'm firmly in the "T11 was awesome" camp.
It may not have been super forgiving, and Chimaeron was pretty eccentric, but I liked having to think about the way I spent my resources. One of my main issues with DS is definitely the dominating "ZOMG AOE" mentality.
MortalCoil Mar 5th 2012 8:16AM
I enjoyed healing greatly during the start of the expansion, the increased difficulty, and the increased importance of each heal was something that was very desirable. For the first time i enjoyed healing on my pally! Then holy radiance got changed... Dont get me wrong, i enjoy being on the top of meters, but it seemed a bit stale that the cure all for almost every situation became HOLY RADIANCE, HOLY RADIANCE, HOLY SHOCK, LIGHT OF DAWN, REPEAT! The only respite from this was heroic yorshaj which i think is the best fight of this tier. Purple ooze anyone?
exogenesis. Mar 5th 2012 8:13AM
ME HEAL. ME HEAL ANYTHING. GOOD HEALS.
I'm not really bothered about strategic healing, or the lack of it. Perhaps I'm a bad healer, but I don't see any vast difference between the Cataclysm tiers, healing wise. Or maybe that's just because I'm too busy concentrating on my raid frames that I'm oblivious to anything else.
Yeah, I guess I'm just a bad healer.
Lissanna Mar 5th 2012 8:15AM
I think that taking away mana scaling from INT will actually do a lot to curb the speed at which we return to "mash all the buttons"
Homeschool Mar 5th 2012 1:13PM
Well, yes... and no.
The flaw with the model they're doing hasn't changed since before Cataclysm came out. It's pretty simple: heal cost is based on base mana, while regen scales. That means that the hardest period will be the first tier (when regen and power are both low), while by the last tier, you start abandoning regen for power, resulting in a need for bosses to do more damage. Removing Intellect > Mana is only going to slow the effect, not fix it.
This can't be fixed with triage.
What they really need to do is not limit power, but reward good behavior. They want us to be smart about our heals, and use the best one for the job. Weak heals aren't the answer.
So how to fix it? My suggestion was to refund mana based on (lack of) overhealing. If a person takes 10k damage, and you land a heal for 9k, your heal is (nearly) free. If you heal for 11k, it's more costly. It could be accomplished by doing a replenishment-style refund based on how much of the heal actually landed, or it could do the reverse and only cost mana based on how much overhealing you did. AoE healing and spam would be thus discouraged, as overhealing would rapidly drain a healer, while using weaker heals to top people off and big heals would be too risky unless people were low. The burden would be on the decision, not the cost/regen.
However it's implemented, sticking with the current model is only going to keep the roller coaster going.
Boobah Mar 5th 2012 1:49PM
@Homeschool:
While it's true that if there are infinite tiers of Mists content you'll eventually stack enough spirit that we'll basically be back to where we are now, that doesn't mean that we'll get there.
And without int boosting mana regen, you might actually feel the mana pinch that was always supposed to be the downside of haste.
On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of making the spells cheaper with a mana penalty for overheals. At least until I remember spells like Healing Rain; having to holler at folks to get out of the blue circle or my mana dies? Not practical, especially in a world with random groups. And if the big AoE heals don't count towards the overheal penalty, what's the point? Which doesn't even get into the problem of sniped heals. Oh, and you couldn't pre-HoT to cushion a damage spike without significant mana penalties.
So, yeah, like the idea, but I don't think it would work in this game.
lee_dav Mar 5th 2012 8:23AM
I really enjoyed healing at the start of Cata.
Well actually that's a lie, I hated it. It was tough, difficult, hard, and I was shouted at many times for not healing even when I was OOM.
But that's precisely the reason why I loved it.
Then, gradually, it just became easier. Either due to out-gearing instances or actual encounter designs. It seemed like just spamming heals was the best way to go regardless of whether a player needed them or not.
bjorn9486 Mar 5th 2012 9:04AM
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Snuzzle Mar 5th 2012 3:59PM
Yup. I remember at the start of Cata, actually getting into an argument with a DPS player about why he can't sit there and facetank because my mana can't handle it. That healing doesn't work that way anymore.
And now, it does again. And it's not even just a gear issue, because I can lolheal starter heroics in my 330 shammy. So I don't know what changed or why, but I want to not be able to snooze through dungeons anymore. At least it's not as bad as Wrath where I could put the tank on autofollow and just occasionally hit Rejuv and WG.
Marolas Mar 5th 2012 5:50PM
"I remember at the start of Cata, actually getting into an argument with a DPS player about why he can't sit there and facetank because my mana can't handle it."
I'm fairly sure that this happened to many healers, and the resulting frustrations of the healers who were trying their best to adapt to the new Cataclysm paradigm while the dps refused to change their non-CC/facerolling ways caused many players to throw up their hands in frustration and stop healing.
Enter the Call to Arms feature for heroics. While it provided an incentive for healers to come back, it didn't fix the core problem - the people in the dungeon with them.
Blizzard finally gave up trying to change the way players think and fell back on Wrath-era tactics, not because it wanted to, but because the playerbase found it the most rewarding and stress-free. As a healer who stuck it out throughout the entire expansion, I very much prefer being complimented for my great heals in Hour of Twilight and The Well of Eternity over being yelled at for running OOM in the Lost City of the Tol'vir for the eleventh pull.
Nobag Mar 5th 2012 8:24AM
I don't miss 45 minute dps ques. Keep it the same
Zachariahs Mar 5th 2012 11:02AM
I agree with heroics and LFR remaining pretty easy, or just moderately difficult, to keep queues shorter, but normal raiding should ideally be where it was in t11. That's just my opinion though.
loop_not_defined Mar 5th 2012 11:16AM
I think Blizzard can keep Cata's early healing game without impacting LFD DPS queues. 4.3 didn't drop queue times because of any healing changes or regen scaling...the Hour of Twilight dungeons are easy *across the board*.
It would sure as hell impact LFR DPS queues, though. Even with "easy healing", LFR is HURTING for healers.
Nobag Mar 5th 2012 11:47AM
I'm sorry I just can't disagree more with you loop. When cata dropped and the healing changes were in full effect I myself gave up healing. I know I'm 1 person but there are more of people like me than most would like to admit.
Now that gear has allowed us to have near infinite mana again, heals are hitting harder, and our spells are going out faster (haste scaling), I have picked up healing again on my Paladin, Druid, and Priest again. So that is 1 more healer in 21 dungeons a week. Before gear allowed it to be like it is, that was 1 more dps waiting in que for 21 dungeons a week.
Do you see what I'm saying? if 10% of healers quit healing because they didn't like the healing model then that's 10% more dps taking up slots in the que system.
Zach has it spot on though. I DID heal in T11 raids but refused to heal heroics back then.
Boobah Mar 5th 2012 2:58PM
I'm closer to loop's position than Nobag's. The problem with the 4.0 5-mans wasn't the way healing worked. The problem was that they were designed for folks who wanted heroics to be... well... heroic. People who wanted to work as a group to overcome an actual challenge, instead of the AoE and loot piñata of most heroics in 3.3.
The problem came from attaching content like that to the LFD tool. I'd be far happier if LFD was separate from heroics just like LFR is from raids. I don't expect it to happen, though; I'll take my Challenge Modes and enjoy them.
Snuzzle Mar 6th 2012 7:13AM
I completely agree Boobah. Now that we can see LFR works while normals/hardmodes are still hard, I wish they'd do the same with 5 mans and make heroics heroic again. But it'll probably never happen. Sigh.
Saeadame Mar 5th 2012 8:31AM
I enjoy healing in Cata a lot more than in Wrath. Not that Wrath-era healing was "bad," but it was an exercise in 1) how fast is your internet connection, 2) how fast can you spam Rejuvenation on everyone in the raid, mixing in Wild Growth on CD. Disc priest was even worse, it was entirely "how fast can you spam shields on everyone in the raid? Fast? You with at Healing Meters (provided your meters show absorbs, otherwise, you lose at healing meters despite being possibly the most valuable healer in your raid group)."
My internet connection was good, and so I was topping meters like a bause throughout ICC, but it felt really... boring. 2 button healing is just kind of eh.
Even today with mana not being too much of an issue on most fights (HM Spine, however...), most healers are still expected to cast at least 3 heals on a regular basis (for Rdruids: Keep Lifebloom up, cast Rej, cast WG, and weave in Swiftmend and Clearcasting direct heals when necessary). And to me, that's a good thing. Having to make some choices about which heal is best in what situation, rather than "WG is my best heal. Rej is my second best heal. When not casting WG, cast Rej to spammable spam spams."
I hope to see this kind of thing continue in Mists =).
Zachariahs Mar 5th 2012 11:07AM
I completely agree. My style of healing hasn't change throughout cata, and I love that, but one thing I've noticed is not being as punished for using flash heal, and for some fights it wasn't necessary to use my fiend cause mana isn't an issue.
Squiggy Mar 5th 2012 8:35AM
I used to like healing because it was relaxing, easy to get groups and you could just sit back and get free dungeon runs while everyone else did all the work. Now it's the most stressful and excruciating experience in the world as you frantically try to keep people from dying and your mana runs out on every pull. Not to mention that everything that goes wrong will get you kicked or screamed at. FU Blizzard, that is NOT fun.