Blizzard Healer Discussion for Cataclysm

[Lindline]

Ghostcrawler has been busy in a rather length thread about healing in World of Warcraft now and into Cataclysm. Sure a lot of it has been mostly rehashing on concepts that have been gone over time and again, but its always nice to be able to take a look into their heads. Some of the things that have been discussed are mana management, downranking, and health vs healing vs inc damage. The thread has been going for over a week so there is definitely a lot of reading to catch up on, so let me start you off here.

The general theory behind healing in Cataclysm is that you'll no longer (see also less often) be spamming heals like a mad-man. To accomplish this, Blizzard is making it so tanks won't be one or even two-shotted. At the same time, healers will not be able to one or even two-heal a tank from low to full health. This will, of course, lessen the stress of healers to heal or die. And at the same time, the efficiency of healing compared to mana pools will be significantly reduced, making not healing an important aspect of the healer's job. Sort of a pick the time and place of your heals.

Ghostcrawler -

I see this sort of question a lot, and it's usually phrased in terms of how we love dps casters and make things easy for them and hate healers and want to make them suffer.

When you think about the actual experience though the difference comes down to more damage nearly always being better while healing has a target, beyond which more healing isn't necessary because everyone is at 100% of their health. Overhealing exists as a concept, whereas overdamage does not (except in a few isolated fights or when threat is an issue). In a very coarse sense, damage is about as going as fast as you can while healing is about hitting your target -- damage is a 50 yard dash, while healing is playing darts.

Furthermore, most healing rotations aren't terrible complicated because they can't afford to be. If you had to get up e.g. 3 periodic spells and self buffs before you could even do your job, then a lot of time players would be dead before you could ever get around to actually saving their lives. Having a long ramp up time would just kill healing.

So the healing game ultimately becomes more about using the right tool for the job. If someone takes a little damage but isn't likely to die, a hot is a great idea. If someone is about to die, you might need a very fast spell or even a cooldown. If a lot of players take damage at once, an AE looks attractive. If you know you won't be able to cast for awhile (maybe you're moving) then again something with a duration like a hot or shield is the ticket. And so on....

Mana efficiency is ideally part of this calculus. If mana doesn't matter, then either your highest healing-per-second spell or your fastest spell (depending on the situation) is always the best choice. Increasingly in LK, it's just the fastest spell that wins because of the nature of incoming damage. If mana doesn't matter, then you aren't trying to hit the bullseye I described above because missing the bullseye (overhealing) has no consequence. If you use the proverbial bazooka to kill cockroaches, then who cares?

Many long-term healers (and I'll include myself in that) enjoy healing because you feel smart when you do it right. Part of that "smartiness" is using the right tool for the job. It's a different approach to the game than say a mage or warlock uses however. To some degree it's hard for me to understand how you like healing if you don't like mana management.

Now, in much of the above, I'm describing an ideal situation. Mana generally matters a lot less in Lich King for healers than we'd like, so instead of challenging healers to hit the target we just challenge healers to keep as many darts in the air as possible. If you miss even a single GCD, then it's possible someone is going to die. That doesn't feel like smart playing to many players. That feels like whack-a-mole.

Now don't jump to the opposite extreme and assume what we intend for Cataclysm is for healers to stand around a lot and regen. What we'd rather see is that say a Holy priest uses Renew in some situations, Flash Heal in others, Greater Heal in others, CoH in others, and so on. Furthermore, we'd like to see more coordination among the healers (again because the risk of going OOM exists). That doesn't have to mean talking on Vent, though it could be that too. It could be as simple as assigning more targets or roles for your healers instead of just "You heal the tank, everyone else heal the raid."

In addition, once the group learns that healing mana matters, then individual survivability matters more too. Health stones, pots and even bandages do something. An avoid-damage ability like Barkskin or Dispersion is an interesting part of the dps toolbox instead of a PvP-only spell. Standing in fires is dangerous rather than just sloppy playing. Avoidance on tanks is more attractive because being the guy who requires tons of healing can be as much of a liability as the guy who dies from big boss hits.

Yes, the risk is that the game becomes so stressful for healers that it's not fun for them. But I think healing can definitely be stressful now, and in a physically exhausting way instead of a I-need-to-make-smart-decisions-quickly way. Check out the rest of the discussion - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...2910&sid=1

[burningforce]

Did not read the whole article, but I am going to comment on it :P

I do not think they can make people want to heal if they do not like it. you either like staring at health bars and heal players when they get low HP, or you don't. I tred it myself and I liked it up until I had to do the harder instances like BRD. oh man was that the longest 3-4 hours of my life back in classic lol

[burningforce]

Originally Posted by burningforce

Did not read the whole article, but I am going to comment on it :P

I do not think they can make people want to heal if they do not like it. you either like staring at health bars and heal players when they get low HP, or you don't. I tred it myself and I liked it up until I had to do the harder instances like BRD. oh man was that the longest 3-4 hours of my life back in classic lol

but on to the article, I think they need more interesting encounters for healers to have fun. I liked the idea of vehicle encounters, gives everyone a chance to help out. But a lot of ppl did not like them, especially us boxers :P

But like I said they just need to make encounters interesting, maybe add a spell to each healers arsenal that makes healing fun..

[burningforce]

oops, wanted to edit my original message and add to it, looks like I messed up. I do not see the edit post button anywhere. sorry for the triple post

[Ualaa]

Announcement forum, has no edit option.


I like the idea of having to choose the right spell for the situation, rather then mashing the biggest heal constantly.

Still, as boxers we are usually in one of two categories. Either we run Tank + DPS (who can heal) or Tank + Healer + DPS. In the first case, we can afford to be a little mana inefficient, because the smaller/faster/more expensive per health healed spells will top the tank off, when four are casting. In the latter case, this will feel more like a raid situation, where you have to pick the correct heal for the situation.

I personally detest the vehicle encounters, quests and raids. I choose to play a Druid, Warlock, Paladin, Priest or Shaman, not a Catapult, Dragon, Knight or Tractor...

Vehicles were successful in LotRO, and like all the other good games out there, anything that works for a competitor is worth trying in your own game too. I hope the trend does not catch, or that if it does it is used as sporadically as possible.

[TheMuffinMan]

Healing has been my favorite thing in this game since my Priest in the days of MC =)

[Tim]

I personally detest the vehicle encounters, quests and raids. I choose to play a Druid, Warlock, Paladin, Priest or Shaman, not a Catapult, Dragon, Knight or Tractor...

I completely agree here. The thing is the WoW designers seem to be so far off from what their customers want that it surprises me that they would constantly build these sort of things into the game.

I remember back when it was said that ICC would have those ship combat things and the WoW forums were literally flooded with QQ left and right asking them to reconsider.

Healing raids is more akin to work than it is to playing the game, which I believe is the bottom line. To heal a raid one must stare at a healbot or grid interface VS staring at the actual raid boss, surrounding, or game overall. That is why it sucks.

[TheMuffinMan]

Originally Posted by Tim

I completely agree here. The thing is the WoW designers seem to be so far off from what their customers want that it surprises me that they would constantly build these sort of things into the game.

I remember back when it was said that ICC would have those ship combat things and the WoW forums were literally flooded with QQ left and right asking them to reconsider.

Healing raids is more akin to work than it is to playing the game, which I believe is the bottom line. To heal a raid one must stare at a healbot or grid interface VS staring at the actual raid boss, surrounding, or game overall. That is why it sucks.

I am going to have to disagree here... I think 2 instances that are only partially vehicle combat, and 1 fight in Ulduar is not "constantly building these sorts of things". I think they represent an extremely small % of encounters in the game, and were put there just to add some flare and variety to WoW (that lack of which can cause games to become stagnant). The "ship combat" in ICC is NOT "vehicle combat". You have a few people in the raid man the "guns" of the ship while ranged/AoE attack the players on the "NPC" ship of the opposite side. After a bit the guns become frozen and it's almost like a giant PvP battle against the opposing factions ship... almost like a pirate battle kind of thing...

Video of the Airship battle:
YouTube - HoA Icecrown Citadel 25 Man - Airship Battle

I have been healing since day one of Vanilla WoW, and it has never felt like a job to me. If you don't learn to watch at bosses and your surroundings just as much as health bars you are responsible for you are more than likely going to die in about 30 seconds on most boss fights in the game. My target never leaves the boss so I can always see what he is casting and where is HP is at, at the same time my Healbot is positioned where no matter what my vision is focusing on, I can see anything else in my peripheral.

Is it harder and more work than DPS? Most likely... tanking? Depends on the fight... but you have to LOVE LOVE LOVE that extra work and have the skill to back it all up to be REALLY good!

/END RANT

[Lindline]

I honestly cant wrap my head around the shear amount of distaste people have for vehicles. I love them and take every chance I can to hop in one. I view them as flair to the game and a much appreciated detour from the healbotting I had/have been doing for over 2 years. It also add depth around the story for me. It help me grasp the scope of my activities in-terms of game lore.

A couple of examples. For the Malygos encounter, youre fighting a Dragon aspect. A Dragon Aspect. One of the most powerful beings on Azeroth. Sure, the fight goes well enough in the beginning, but you realize youre fighting him in his realm on his terms. He makes it quite clear with dialog and theres no reason to doubt him. In order to finally deal the fatal blow, you need to harness the power of the Red Flight.

I dont view my character as some sort of Demi-god. Sometimes I need a little help from my friends. Sometimes you need to harness the power of the dragons, a big freakin cannon, or just plain runover crap with a giant tank.

Sure I signed up to player my character's class, but I also signed up to be a part of the lore. Vehicles help to keep things in perspective, and I do like the feeling of being part of something bigger than mayself. No matter how virtual the experience is.

[TheMuffinMan]

Originally Posted by lindline

i honestly cant wrap my head around the shear amount of distaste people have for vehicles. I love them and take every chance i can to hop in one. I view them as flair to the game and a much appreciated detour from the healbotting i had/have been doing for over 2 years. It also add depth around the story for me. It help me grasp the scope of my activities in-terms of game lore.

A couple of examples. For the malygos encounter, youre fighting a dragon aspect. A dragon aspect. One of the most powerful beings on azeroth. Sure, the fight goes well enough in the beginning, but you realize youre fighting him in his realm on his terms. He makes it quite clear with dialog and theres no reason to doubt him. In order to finally deal the fatal blow, you need to harness the power of the red flight.

I dont view my character as some sort of demi-god. Sometimes i need a little help from my friends. Sometimes you need to harness the power of the dragons, a big freakin cannon, or just plain runover crap with a giant tank.

Sure i signed up to player my character's class, but i also signed up to be a part of the lore. Vehicles help to keep things in perspective, and i do like the feeling of being part of something bigger than mayself. No matter how virtual the experience is.

100% win