Can we have a discussion about healing mechanics? No QQ, no 3.0.8 distress, just a raw mechanics discussion. I'm not talking about class balance here, just the raw mechanics of what does and does not work as a healing implementation. Let me give you a few examples of things I think are overall issues with healing mechanics.

<added> Healer Competition:
While most of PvE is cooperative, raid healing is stupidly competetive with poor support mechanics for multiple healers healing the same damage. It also creates an environment where faster spells are artificially more valued because it means your heal actually works. To overcome this with communication and mods takes an unproportional amount of effort.

Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

Bored Healers:
1 healer can pull over a million in healing on the right fight. Fights like Noth might have 200k in healing total. You can only heal as much damage as the raid takes.

Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

From Cafooh - Healer Exhaustion:
As a healer, you have to pay 100% attention 100% of the time. Even 5-10 seconds of talking to your roommate or trying to answer a phone call can and will cause wipes and deaths. The ramifications of anything less than 100% of attention are faaaaaaar less severe as a DPSer (or even as a tank, as I am finding with the DK). You are constantly staring at the screen and reacting instantaneously for hours and hours. No other role is even close to as demanding or as straining as healing.

Leaving issues of class balance aside, if there was one thing you would change with regards to healing mechanics, did I list it? If not, what would it be?

I agree with you in everything, my suggestions:

---

Q u o t e:
Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

---

It's time to give all healers another role, a DPS increaser and or Crowd Controler role. This way healers will be required even when we out-gear content. But plz, don't let dual spec "fix" it.

---

Q u o t e:
Bored Healers:
1 healer can pull over a million in healing on the right fight. Fights like Noth might have 200k in healing total. You can only heal as much damage as the raid takes.

---

It's time for overhealing do more than just waste our mana. Increase haste, give a shield, increase Stamina, anything!!

---

Q u o t e:
Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

---

Well, can't help people being limited...

---

Q u o t e:

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

---

Give it a CountDown for people that reaches zero HP. Make them in standbye (stun-like) debuff for like 3 sec so healers have more time to react, still being important for them to mainly watch their own HP (can't help it here!) and the tank hp( lost aggro? taunt might help, or not...).

---

Q u o t e:

UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

---

Yep, raid warnings like deadly boss should come from day 1 of patches. At the very least for healers only XD

---

Q u o t e:
Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

---

Dual Spec can't be the solution for healer shortage, I want to heal in pvp and pve!

---

Q u o t e:
Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

---

Again, can't help stupid people >.<

---

Q u o t e:
Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

---

More badges options? Maybe loot could be 100% badge?

---

Q u o t e:
Leaving issues of class balance aside, if there was one thing you would change with regards to healing mechanics, did I list it? If not, what would it be?

---

I would really love in my UI to see how far people are and an arrow pointing where is it exaclty so I can follow it to get closer and land that heal. Also everytime I cast and I am out of range or sigh I want a raid warning to go to at least that person so he can move, instead of me getting desesperated alone!

---

Q u o t e:
Can we have a discussion about healing mechanics? No QQ, no 3.0.8 distress, just a raw mechanics discussion. I'm not talking about class balance here, just the raw mechanics of what does and does not work as a healing implementation. Let me give you a few examples of things I think are overall issues with healing mechanics.

Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.[/qoute]

These 2 issues somewhat seem to take care of each other... Right now the best option for pvp as a healer is generally to be dps specced in the first place. If you are running 4 healers, you can surely get away with bringing 3 PvP-DPS spec players who normally heal.

It's not an elegant solution but I don't particularly see a problem with it. Unless most members of the guild have 2 raid-optimized specs, they really have no justification to complain about your spec.

[quote]UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

---

These are all issues most healers agree are a problem and only the last one has a simple solution: bar DPS from gear with mp5 if you bar healers from gear with hit rating.
Does mp5 technically help DPS casters? Sometimes.
Are you ever called on to cast any offensive spells (Purge, Earth Shock, Shackle, Judgments, Mind Control, etc.)? Probably.

I think your post did a good job of summarizing the current problems with healing, but I don't think you broke any new ground and I don't think there's really much to discuss here. Everything you said was correct, is the cause of the 'LF1M-HEALZZZ' spam in trade chat, and can only be fixed by attention from Blizzard.

I think that , unfortunately, healers are just low men on the totem pole (sorry shammies) for Blizzard right now. I absolutely think this will change, since B has a track record of focusing solely on one aspect of the game at a time and then shifting that focus dramatically.

The only question is when will they see this as an immediate problem. I'm not sure what it will take. As things stand right now I can get into any run in the game... whenever I want. And I still don't run that much because healing has become less and less enjoyable. Let me be perfectly clear about that: I can go get any piece of gear in the game I want (assuming I have the patience for the drop rates), any time I want, and I'm choosing to level my mage instead.

Healing is one of those areas I feel warhammer did things right (besides PvP balance in general...despite destruction #*@%*ing about bright wizards).

WAR aside, allowing healer "healing" specs to also DPS or tank with the exact same spec would do a lot for healers. For example a holy paly should be able to tank in an emergency for a short period of time but he shouldn't be MT. Likewise a holy/disc priest shouldn't be equal to a mage in DPS, but should be able to represent himself well enough.

The problem, as I see it, is that when a healing-capable class goes down their "healing" tree, *all* they are capable of he healing.

They can't solo.

They can't PvP.

They can't DPS.

They can't tank.

They can't off-tank.






They...heal. That's it.

Will allowing a, for example, holy priest to put out respectable DPS be a bad thing?

In one view yes because you'd have excelent healing and respectable DPS in a single package.

In another...no because while they can do good DPS and good HPS, because of the GCD and casting times they're barred from doing both at once.

The one thing I'd like is a fully functional, built-in UI for raid healing. On major patches, I can't raid until my add-ons are stable again. If WoW is giving me trouble, the cavalier advice of the support to delete my Interface, Cache, and WTF folders usually means hours of downloads and configuration before I can play again.

Things I need and am missing are HoT indicators that are easy to read for everyone in the raid, indicators of who is being targeted (druids heal proactively), important debuffs on the raid UI, compactness so I can see what's going on around me, and Clique or Healbot-style click casting.

My favorite new addition will be the Dual specs. (Hurry, GC! I'm back to resto and missing my feathers!) Dual specs will make things a lot better for me for gameplay. I'm not much of PvPer so I will have a healing spec and a DPS spec. Between that and the spellpower gear, I will be in good shape to solo efficiently.

More actively-applied short term buffs. Raid's not taking damage? Healers get to reward them by handing out power-infusion type buffs instead of heals.

Take a page from DnD 4e: turn Healers into Leaders (aka Support) specs - mitigation buffs, accuracy buffs, damage output buffs, all on short timers so they need to be maintained on the raid; let them stack up like Lifebloom so they get more powerful the less healers have to do. Split the types of buffs between Nature and Holy to give a bit more theme to the type of healer you are.

---

Q u o t e:
Take a page from DnD 4e: turn Healers into Leaders (aka Support) specs - mitigation buffs, accuracy buffs, damage output buffs, all on short timers so they need to be maintained on the raid; let them stack up like Lifebloom so they get more powerful the less healers have to do. Split the types of buffs between Nature and Holy to give a bit more theme to the type of healer you are.

---

Whoa that's crazy talk. Only dps classes are allowed to buff dps, and only dps classes are allowed to CC. Now punishment for not reapplying CC, Healers are allowed to have that.

But remember, the healer shortage doesn't exist and thus there is no problem. Stop making these threads! The problem doesn't exist!

---

Q u o t e:
More actively-applied short term buffs. Raid's not taking damage? Healers get to reward them by handing out power-infusion type buffs instead of heals.

Take a page from DnD 4e: turn Healers into Leaders (aka Support) specs - mitigation buffs, accuracy buffs, damage output buffs, all on short timers so they need to be maintained on the raid; let them stack up like Lifebloom so they get more powerful the less healers have to do. Split the types of buffs between Nature and Holy to give a bit more theme to the type of healer you are.

---

I'd love to play this kind of class. Support/Heal with enough DPS to be able to solo effectively.

Part of why I love Affliction is juggling all my abilities to their maximum potential. I can imagine the ball I'd have juggling buffs on 25 people. ^.^

Sadly Blizzard has nixed the notion of pure support classes.

---

Q u o t e:
I think your post did a good job of summarizing the current problems with healing, but I don't think you broke any new ground and I don't think there's really much to discuss here.

---

I think some of the discussion about other models is really interesting. Certainly we've seen other models for healing and the Warhammer and DnD methods are entirely viable looks that correct many of the issues I listed.

The other thing I was hoping to see is: are there other mechanics I did not list that are key to making healing better in World of Warcraft?

Let me give you another example. Right now most healers in healing spec do witheringly pathetic DPS. By comparison, a tank class in full tank spec and in tank gear does significantly more damage. We were doing Noth again last night and the healing in there is just seriousy underwhelming, so I said screw it and just threw DPS. Now, sure, I tossed out a couple CoH and ~10 PoM while doing it, but I dotted things up, kept my CD's on CD and when left with no other option threw smite. I ended doing half of what the tanks did in damage and less than 20% of the damage of our top DPS'er.

Is it entirely unreasonable that a healer might be closer to 50-60% of a dps class? More interestingly, how would you balance that in PvP? That may be a premature question, however. Healing doesn't really translate into survivability like it once did - PvP doesn't seem to really... work... right now.

---

Q u o t e:
Can we have a discussion about healing mechanics? No QQ, no 3.0.8 distress, just a raw mechanics discussion. I'm not talking about class balance here, just the raw mechanics of what does and does not work as a healing implementation. Let me give you a few examples of things I think are overall issues with healing mechanics.

Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

Bored Healers:
1 healer can pull over a million in healing on the right fight. Fights like Noth might have 200k in healing total. You can only heal as much damage as the raid takes.

Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

Leaving issues of class balance aside, if there was one thing you would change with regards to healing mechanics, did I list it? If not, what would it be?

---

Good list!

If I were king for a day, I'd really only change loot distribution though. And here's how I would do it: If your party has three people that habitually use a class of armor or weapon, when the boss dies, he doesn't drop just one - he drops that many. At least in the normal 5 mans. I don't think that anyone would say that upping the amount of normal 5-man loot would really upset the game, and it would certainly make a transition into the heroics easier. I see a lot of threads complaining about people's gear status when they try to make that transition.

I would love to see a dual targetting system like in... um... some other mmo, where you have both a friendly and an unfriendly target.

Bored healers are inevitable in a game that also includes challenging encounters. If you are good enough to rock the challenging ones, the less challenging will be...

Honestly, if you heal pugs (and I do), the very brief moments of boredom are a relief from the constant involvement and attention I usually have to expend. :-)


Mechanics-wise, I'd love to see greater synergy between healing classes. For instance, if I'm GHealing someone, and another healer "snipes" him, then my healing might not be overheal but rather splash onto other players that need it instead of being wasted.

Or if I HoT someone that a druid has HoT'd, there might be a chance for, say, double the healing. Or someting like that. You could balance it, and still have some kind of synergy. Then there would actually even be a motivation NOT to stack specific kinds of healers, and ignore others. Although, that does contradict Blizzard's "Bring the Player" goal.

---

Q u o t e:
Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

---

Hehe, that would be neat if there was a boss that specifically called out healer names.

"Chetaka, you dare to save <tank's name>'s life? Perhaps it is you who shall serve me now?"
Chetaka becomes possessed and starts healing the boss.

or

"Chetaka, you dare to save <tank's name>'s life? Perhaps it is you who needs healing now?"
Tanks and melee dps must use a <quest item bandage> to heal Chetaka while she is <incapacitated>.

Oh - that would be an awesome mechanic!

The one I always think of is a fight where everything is flipped. A clothie has to tank, DPS attacks can target friendlies and heal them, and the healers cast heals at the boss to kill him.

---

Q u o t e:
WHY U CAN'T HEALS ME THRU WRONG THADDIUS CHARGE? HUH? I HAS TO DPS!

It is never the fault of the DPS. If they couldn't beat the enrage timer, it's because the tank didn't generate threat quickly enough. It's because they had to run out of the fire because your spellpower was too low to heal them through it. It's because you wouldn't let them Whirlwind or Volley or Arcane Explosion because you had to Shackle the bad man.

Pick your analogy. The DPS player is the quarterback, the soprano, the lead singer. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: AWESOME! BECUZ U R!

(Dear DPS, don't freak out. I'm kidding. But remember it's the healer, the tank, the decurser and the crowd-controller who are helping you be so awesome.)

---

PURE WIN

With regard to "it's the healer's fault". There's not much Blizzard can do about some people having poor attitudes.

However, it would be nice to see more mechanics in fights which do not punish the group with increased damage taken, if somoene stands in the wrong spot or breaks the wrong egg or something.

Right on, ghost crab, right on.

I heartily approve of this list.

The joys of watching the dps high-five each other on a job well done for pulling almost 1.2k dps in a heroic while standing in fires. I only get noticed when the tank dies because they killed the adds and made the boss stormstrike/windfury spam the tank for 10k a second.

Then the mage decides that he really should upgrade his Karazhan gear now that he's running heroics and rolls on everything with spell damage, ignoring the fact that the loot has no hit and a load of spirit.

It just feels like I'm carrying groups through on my back. I enjoy healing, it's considerably more reactive than dps, but at the same time it lacks that epic feel to it. I exist solely to keep people alive, and pray to god that they don't screw up so badly that I go oom in the process.

---

Q u o t e:
However, it would be nice to see more mechanics in fights which do not punish the group with increased damage taken, if somoene stands in the wrong spot or breaks the wrong egg or something.

---

This is a good point. Any failure on the part of the group is not their problem, it becomes my problem. And consequently if we wipe, it's my fault.

---

Q u o t e:

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

---

For me this is the #1 most difficult aspect of WoW's healing mechanics. A healer's latency is tested much more often than other roles, both the latency of his network connection and of his hand-eye reflexes. Loken and the Maiden of Grief are both good examples, where the healer must simultaneously manage damage spikes on the tank, AoE damage on the group, and boss effect that require repositioning.

---

Q u o t e:
Can we have a discussion about healing mechanics? No QQ, no 3.0.8 distress, just a raw mechanics discussion. I'm not talking about class balance here, just the raw mechanics of what does and does not work as a healing implementation. Let me give you a few examples of things I think are overall issues with healing mechanics.

<added> Healer Competition:
While most of PvE is cooperative, raid healing is stupidly competetive with poor support mechanics for multiple healers healing the same damage. It also creates an environment where faster spells are artificially more valued because it means your heal actually works. To overcome this with communication and mods takes an unproportional amount of effort.

Healer Reduction:
Start 25-mans with 7 healers (or even 8 in some cases). Drop down to 4 healers as content becomes farmed. Start new content - need 7 healers again.

Bored Healers:
1 healer can pull over a million in healing on the right fight. Fights like Noth might have 200k in healing total. You can only heal as much damage as the raid takes.

Outstanding!:
Great DPS makes the fight short. Great tanks keep everything locked down. Great healers ... make everyone else think the fight just isn't that hard. Underlying mechanics mean that spectacular healers don't shine anywhere near as well as spectacular dps/tanks.

Lag Double Dip:
While everyone in the raid has to react to events during encounters, for example Thaddius' polarity shifts. But while other roles have to do this a few times per encounter or as often as once every 30s, healers do this on every single cast. This makes healing more dynamic than other roles in most cases. It also means lag (link latency or server lag) affects healing roles twice as much as DPS/tanks.

UI/Interface Issues:
The base Blizzard UI is terrible for healing. A lot of encounters are easier if you're staring at the boss and see a cast start (for example: Loken) rather than staring at health bars. Having to either get a mod or macro every single ability is dumb.

Dual-Spec:
Healers have a PvE spec, a PvP spec, and a DPS/questing/dailies spec. Dual-spec suggests that healers are only supposed to do 2 out of those 3 things. It should not be unreasonable to allow PvP healers to have a tri-spec option.

Healer's Fault:
Stand in a fire? It's the healer's fault. Get crit while tanking and die? It's the healer's fault. Not enough DPS so the healers run out of mana? It's the healer's fault. Trying to do an instance in mediocre gear with no CC? It's the healer's fault. If a mechanic is supposed to be a gauge of skill, there are other ways to handle it than making healing really really hard. Thaddius is a successful solution - a nice exception to the rule.

Loot Distribution:
DPS casters are rolling on every single piece of caster gear. Healers are excluded from anything with +hit on it. The heavier the armor you wear, the more loot you can roll on.

Leaving issues of class balance aside, if there was one thing you would change with regards to healing mechanics, did I list it? If not, what would it be?

---

Many of these sound like guild problems. My guild loves it's healers and runs healing meters, so we can all brag. We also know what is healing gear and what is DPS gear, and roll acourdanly.

gear has Spirit, haste, and spell damage? it is healer gear.
gear has no spirit, and +hit? It is dps gear.

If there are any questions then all caster can roll if it is an upgrade.