Since World of Warcraft Dragonflight season two started on May 9, it’s been healers this and healers that, with players talking non-stop about the state of the role. Now, WoW players are openly admitting they hate the healer meta and want Blizzard Entertainment to change it.
On June 28, a player on WoW’s subreddit asked for “the primary limiting factor for M+ success would go back to DPS checks and not healing/defensives.” As a part of their point, they listed the three most important reasons:
- “First, survival just isn’t as fun. No one likes to wipe, but most are “ok” if the key isn’t timed. Moreover, failing the timer is seen as a “team” failure… People dying is seen as a “healer” failure—again even when the DPS didn’t use their defensives. The system is asking for healers to be berated and put in negative social situations.”
- “Second, though great efforts have been made to balance throughput, there is a MOUNTAIN of difference in mitigation for the DPS classes… If defensives need to be the “meta” check, then they need to be balanced.”
- “Third, it creates weird class incentives. Granted, this is partly being addressed with the hybrid healing changes in 10.1.5, but when I do heal, the difference between when you have a Spriest or DPS shaman that knows how to use their offhealing is huge. It’s basically an extra healer CD.”
In a nutshell, this player was trying to say that when Mythic+ dungeons were specifically focused on DPS checks, it was a team effort. Now, all the pressure and burden falls on healers who are grappling with health bars and mana, barely keeping the group alive. In addition to this, DPS checks encouraged class diversity and it was “easier to fit into current balance.”
Related: Everything wrong with healing in WoW Dragonflight season 2
This doesn’t mean healers shouldn’t have challenging moments in Mythic+ dungeons. In fact, everyone loves a skill expression window where you can show off the tricks you’ve discovered over the years.
Although healing problems are surfacing just now, this all can actually be traced back to the 25 percent player Stamina and enemy damage increase that came with Patch 10.1 on May 2. Over time, the devs nerfed damage in Mythic+ dungeons with various hotfixes, but healers didn’t truly recover from the straight healing nerfs.
In Patch 10.1.5, which is scheduled to release on July 11, the devs are reducing the effectiveness of off-healing spells like Vampiric Embrace, Nature’s Vigil, and Ancestral Guidance and allowing hybrid classes to cast direct heals more, but not as often because of nerfs to mana regeneration. This means healers will be left to fend for themselves and they will likely struggle even more with keeping the group alive. Hopefully, Blizzard hears our prayers and healer changes come in Patch 10.1.7.
