WoW Dragonflight season 4 class changes have players scratching their heads

Blizzard is nerfing healing classes in season four, leaving World of Warcraft players confused about the decision.

Elemental in the Azure Vault, Dracthyr, and Vulpera
Image via Blizzard Entertainment

The final season of World of Warcraft Dragonflight is arriving on April 23, and Blizzard Entertainment is hard at work polishing the patch. On April 16, the devs announced balancing changes, but players don’t understand the logic behind them.

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Blizzard is slashing the healing done by Monks, Druids, Shamans, and Discipline Priests in season four. On top of that, Mistweaver Monk is getting an additional nerf to the Ancient Teachings healing in PvP. While Blizzard lowers Monk’s, Druid’s, and Shaman’s healing output by five to 13 percent, Discipline Priest’s Atonement heals are getting trimmed down.

Blizzard’s reasoning is to allow other healers to shine in season four without additional tuning changes.

“In Season 4, we’re reducing the overall throughput of some healers to better align with our tuning goals. At the same time, we’re increasing the comparative power of Holy Paladin, Preservation Evoker, and Holy Priest without needing to further escalate the capabilities of healers,” Blizzard said.

Naturally, WoW players aren’t happy about these changes because healers haven’t been in the best state in Dragonflight.

“You’re slapping healers down again for being playable, while VDH sits untouched for Season 3 and Season 4 – how is slapping down Resto Shaman of all fucking specs taking precedence over addressing VDH?” one player complained. 

Restoration Shaman in Valdrakken casting healing spells
Healers can’t catch a break in Dragonflight. Screenshot by Dot Esports

Essentially, healers have been nerfed over and over again in Dragonflight. It’s been difficult to find a healer in the expansion because the role isn’t rewarding. You can easily top off your group in most cases, but they can also die in seconds if you mistime a single cooldown. Healing has been stressful, and jumping into Mythic+ dungeons or raids without knowing the mechanics is out of the question because you could easily be the reason your group wiped.

On top of all this, the season four Mythic+ dungeon rotation consists of only Dragonflight dungeons, which have proved to be healing-intensive. Not only do you have to deal with an overwhelming number of mechanics, but your teammates’ health pools oscillate so much that you’ll probably think you’re seeing things.  

Nerfing healing won’t do any good in season four. This will make it even more stressful. Hopefully, Blizzard will change its mind ahead of the release.

Author
Image of Izabela Tomakic
Izabela Tomakic
Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.