I know this is a point that has been mentioned and is detailed very well in Mage healing is a letdown (but am accepting advice).
This is long. It’s my experience, so if you’re a mage, it’ll sound all too familiar.
TLDR: Please make changes to mage healing before the level cap raise so we’re not the absolute worst healers in any iteration of WoW to exist as we currently are.
I’m finding every single mage that has tried healing has very quickly reverted to DPS. I just want to recap my mindset at level 22 having healed Deadmines several times. The problem is very straightforward. Mage Healing does minimal healing and burns through mana quickly. Why?
Regeneration is a weak channeled heal but is required every 30 seconds to keep the Temporal Beacon applied. Despite being weak, it costs 178 mana. At 22, my pool is ~1300 total, so 13.7% of my mana. You then shift to Arcane spells to transfer 80% of their damage to your beaconed targets. Arcane Blast is the best bet for this with a cast cost starting around 30 mana and throwing a semi-decent heal for that cost, assuming you have the rune. The problem? It’s a 2.5 sec cast.
It only heals for ~150 at best with the transfer reduction, and by the third cast AB begins devouring mana pools with the 175% mana cost growth of each cast. Sure, Arcane Concentration may give you a free Blast spell, but at best it activates 10% of the time (assuming you have points in it). The other 90% will have you OOM. And if you want to use Arcane Explosion, that has a heal transfer reduction of 80% and costs 120 mana, meaning it’s only close to being effective with BIG pulls, which is problematic itself.
Rewind Time is the rune locked behind an absurd amount of items that need to be collected in contested areas or purchased off the AH for prices that are unattainable. My server (Crusader Strike) would cost a mage between 40-55 gold depending on how pricey Shredder Turbochargers are. And once you get it… it’s for the Hands slot. What else shares that slot? Arcane Blast. The kicker is that the Rewind Time spell itself has a 30 second cooldown. Even if you put in the time or the gold to get it, it won’t be part of a regular rotation and likely only be used once per encounter, albeit slightly more in boss fights.
It’s hard to believe. The healing rotation seems almost entirely dependent on Arcane Blast, and one of the only healing spells in SOD for Mages overlaps with it.
And the other healing spell? Mass Regeneration, which casts that same weak channeled heal on the whole party, putting Beacons on everyone, but burning 325 mana. That’s 25% of my mana. It serves to get the beacon out to everyone so you can switch to Arcane Blast and hope you can keep everyone alive. Sure, Living Flame can help in a pinch, but it has a 60 second cooldown.
So to keep track:
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Regeneration: Required first and every 30 seconds to apply Temporal Beacon to transfer 80% Arcane Damage to healing beaconed targets, 80% reduction from Arcane Explosion. 178 Mana
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Mass Regeneration: Full party Regeneration, 15 yard range. 325 Mana
**Cannot be combined with Living Flame as they share a slot (Legs) -
Rewind Time: Reverses the last 5 seconds of damage for all with Temporal Beacon. Target must have had beacon for 5 seconds, so don’t let it drop. If it did, cast Regeneration and hope they don’t die in the next 5 seconds.
**Cannot be combined with Arcane Blast as they share a slot (Hands)
The only feasible rotation HEALING WISE is Regeneration & Arcane Blast. I say healing wise because it’s not mana effective. The rotation doesn’t work unless you burn your entire mana pool every encounter.
This is the cast rotation: Regeneration on your tank, Arcane Blast x2 (3 if AC activates). Wand for 5 seconds so AB Debuff can fade. Cast any other spells and your burning more mana for DPS that doesn’t heal. Or cast AE (120 mana) or AM (140 mana) to get a heal out there. Might as well cast ANOTHER AB, but that refreshes the debuff. Push it past 2-3 and most of your mana is gone. So we wait and wand. Hope the tank doesn’t get rocked while the AB stack debuff fades. Start Arcane Blast again, reapplying Regeneration every 30 seconds. This is the BEST CASE SCENARIO.
If a DPS pulls threat, gotta cast Regeneration outside of rotation to apply the beacon to them at 13.6% of your mana before you can toss out a “real” heal. During this time, no heals for your tank. You can channel that Regeneration all the way and then cast a Arcane Blast to get their HP back up, and that’s 5.5 seconds. Best to cast Regeneration, interrupt it, get back to AB to keep the tank up and heal the DPS at the same time. Better hope that DPS who pulled threat isn’t squishy. God forbid your group have a Warlock that’s life tapping, they’re on their own. They chose that life (tap).
Anything outside of that, extra Regeneration cast, extra Arcane Blast at increased cost to keep people from dying, anything aggros on you for pulling threat which happens ALL THE TIME, better get creative. Pop a mana pot, use Evocation (8 minute cooldown), Frost Nova to escape, Blink if you have to. All that costs mana, but maybe you’ll make it through the encounter. Someone died? Hope I have a scroll for that. Even IF you have a group patient enough to deal with that, if you pull adds you’re in trouble.
Most of the time, other Hybrid classes are tossing in heals to prevent wipes. Druids and priests applying HOTS, Paladin tanks healing themselves if you’re OOM. Did I mention everything could go right but the target you’re casting Arcane Blast on dies before it casts? Tank’s health just stays low then. Or we can apply the Beacon early so they’re not starting combat low, but there goes that mana.
When people die, the Hybrid classes / real healers are the ones that resurrect the dead because their cast doesn’t use a reagent that are rare-ish drops or expensive on the AH. Everything a “Mage Healer” can do is a sad imitation of literally everyone else’s healing abilities. Groups only take us because the other classes don’t want to heal and we want to pretend we can.
I was excited to DISCOVER mage healing and planned on grinding out the items to obtain the Rewind Time rune. I am INCREDIBLY thankful I decided not to discover this and spoke with other players so I could find out what a waste of time it would have been.
Serious Question: Are there any plans to make corrections in this iteration or should I just go back to DPS and hope things get better when the level cap goes to 40?
It very much feels incomplete and to be honest, the options are to go back to DPS’ing, switch classes, or find a different game. Again.