The War Within (retail version WoW is one of the best games ive ever played, its smooth, fun, solo queues are available, and gearing alts is fun and simple).
But there is one draw back.
Lack of healers.
Why is there lack of healers? Losing all ratings from 1 loss compared to 3 wins.
Why is this the case? It’s mmr based, and revolves around a pseudo healer v healer scenario in queue.
So why am I losing 40, 50 cr compared to only winning 15,20 cr per lobby? Good question. It’s why healers aren’t queueing. Therefore leading to less queues overall for DPS.
I play several healers, including Priest, Druid, Paladin, all on US and even EU regions, with multiple alts of same spec and class.
I believe my opinion is valid.
– Update : Loss a lobby against a same cr rsham in solo shuffle arenas, 2-4 and I lost -48 cr overall. Next solo queue I face a priest with similar cr, and I go 4-2, and only gain 20 cr.
The system just doesnt make sense. If I don’t care about ratings, its fun. But Im constantly reaching a glass ceiling with mmr, and Im being forced to play with lower geared dps, who are missing enchants, gems, etc and yet as a healer I am the one to suffer the majority of the cr losses.
Blizzard, Make it make sense. More healers = more queues overall for all players, which will retain more players actively participating in the game. Prove me wrong.
Cause it’s not fun to queue up into people exploiting or smurfing, having tons of various characters of the same/class spec, and different accounts. So say you’re in rival/duelist facing gladiator/ or top ranked players. Not fun, kinda simple really.
Not true. My MMR and CR are relatively close, since I have played many solo queues as healer. Its the same on all of my healers, across 3 different accounts including EU and US.
The only way my MMR is drastically boosted is if I get higher rated players to help me in games and duo blitz, without any RMT or transactions, just simply by being their healer when they want some lesser rated games.
The reason MMR doesn’t make sense, is because despite my efforts, my gear, my enchants, my experience and understanding of healing in PvP, from using several guides, Skillcapped, and subscribing to several high rated players who are main healers (Cdew Absterge Montage, etc). I still always find myself hitting the same plateu in ratings and its not because Im not good, its essentially because in every lobby I join there is always dps who are not supposed to be there, as they are lacking gear, gems, enchants, or even pvp gear entirely.
Healing is great and the game in retail (The War Within) feels amazing, especially as healer, but this is the one downside that I can see why players are not queueing up as healer. Despite it being the in demand role for PvP and solo queues which open up lobbies for all players including dps, as healers we are the ones who face the biggest losses in ratings.
Im baffled when I see DPS with 2k+ ratings in shuffles who are not fully geared, gemmed, enchanted, yet as healers we struggle on the ladder because of this system.
----Im not saying the system is broken, but if we want more active participation in game for PvP as a whole, we need to adjust some things to incentivize more healers to keep queueing, after they have reached their plateu and have acquired full gear. It only seems logical for the progress moving forward with solo queues.
You want queues as dps? Make it so healers aren’t getting the short end of the stick with rating losses, since we are the ones carrying the games mostly.
Every other player has to deal with the exact same things, though. The fact that other healers are climbing while you are not says it IS a you issue, especially if you have a large sample size of games.
Starting mmr is 2k atm, so a brand new character will be 2k.
This is a terrible idea and I think you know that.
I understand what you are saying, and Im not disagreeing with you. But every time I mention these concerns as a healer, and my perspective healing, and then logging onto a dps and seeing 20+ min solo queues, I realize it’s not just a me issue.
The truth of the matter is, queues are long because of a shortage in people playing healers. Im not saying that people don’t want to play healers, I personally believe it’s because of the same issues I am seeing when healing. It’s a heartache to lose way more points than you can ever gain, when you are the one putting in all the effort, especially with undergeared dps who arent even wearing pvp gear, enchants or any gems that somehow manage to get into your lobby.
I dont think that healing lower geared players is a problem, I will gladly heal anyone. But the problem that I imagine a lot of healers face, is that they are hitting glass ceilings and the games they lose it feels like they have no real chance of winning.
I don’t agree that losing twice as many points of cr from a bad lobby, compared to winning only a fraction of that amount in a winning lobby is fair for healers in general. I think that aspect of the MMR system could be readjusted, to not strike healers as hard in terms of losses overall.
----I will stand by my opinion and beliefs, that if more healers feel valued and aren’t risking huge losses from lobbies, more healers will remain active and participate in queueing shuffle lobbies in pvp, which logically allows for more dps to get into lobbies, and reduces the wait times drastically.
Essentially, less healers, less queues. At least until they begin adding in more follower ai type healing bots, that are scaled accordingly.
Thank you for your discussion and replies. Cheers.
sorry I just realized I made this thread on my fresh boosted priest in MoP.
This is my priest on tich retail
I play several healers, across US and EU regions on multiple accounts that I own and pay monthly subscriptions for, Priest, Druid Paladin and more… All are stuck around the 1800 -2k cr ranges at full gear, fully enchanted and gemmed.
Its hard to believe its a me issue when I am putting in more time and effort to play as healer than dps who are not fully geared, not enchanted, not gemmed and somehow their ratings are higher in shuffles. Sure im not great at healing, but something definitely is off and I think its ultimately why we are seeing longer queue times for dps, and its in relation to healers not sticking around to queue when they are potentially losing more than they can win in lobbies. Hence the instant healer queues.
I believe what is happening, is with a fresh character, never played any rated matches or shuffle queues, the starting value of MMR is around 1990s from what I have noticed.
I think it’s their way of starting someones values higher, expecting them to lose and balance their ratings with their experience. I don’t disagree with this, but I also can see how this can affect other actually experienced and rated players who then are in a lobby with someone who is expected to lose at those ratings with no gear or experience, compared to others who have worked for those same ratings and mmr.
Interesting take.
I still believe that healing undergeared or inexperienced players isn’t the problem with lack of healers queueing, I personally believe there is lack of healers participating because even with full gear, enchants, gems, etc on a healer you are still ‘battling’ for wins in lobbies against another healer essentially (since dps rotate teams), and if you are on the losing end of the lobby as the healer (example 2-4 W/L vs 4-2 W/L) you lose far more rating points than if you were to win the same lobby.
For instance, I mentioned earlier playing against a good rsham who was near my same ratings. I went 2-4 W/L against the enemy Rsham playing as this disc priest im typing on, and I lost -48 rating points at around 1800 cr and mmr values.
I then went to play another lobby directly after that, I went 4-2 against an enemy priest also around the same rating values of 1800 cr and mmr. But despite winning the lobby overall 4-2, I only gained 18 rating points, which is far less than what I previously lost from the lobby before.
So in fact, it takes nearly 2 or even 3 lobbies of winning as healer, to progress above or even to the same ratings I was just at and lost from.
This is causing many healers to quit and not participate, thus resulting in higher queue times and waiting for many dps.
The healer in these lobbies ultimately shouldn’t be the one to lose majority of the rating points from lobby losses, its almost unfair, and creates a huge imbalance in skill and participation, where as it seems DPS ratings are somewhat inflated to adjust for their wait times in queues. This is what I believe needs to be evaluated and adjusted, to incentivize more healers to play and participate, instead of getting stressed and upset about losing more than they can gain.
I stand by my beliefs that more healers = more queues overall for the game and pvp, especially shuffles and solo queues.
I believe solo queues are great, and Im glad healing is in demand, so we get into games a lot quicker than dps will, but its at the cost of ratings. If we are constantly battling climbing the ladder as healer, with no actual incentive other than gearing alts, nobody is going to want to heal, and thus dps will continue to have increased wait times.
Hopefully Blizzard addresses this concern. More healers playing, more DPS get into queues, less of waiting.
Nothing they can do will ever change the disparity in numbers between healers and dps.
As for long ques, assume you’re talking about solo que and that would be because each lobby takes like 15+/- mins to complete, vs an actual arena match taking like 2-4min~. There is a very slow turnover of dps sitting in line.
Only way they are speeding that up is to either increase burst so games end faster or nerf healing so games end faster, or change it from a 6round lobby system to something else.
Solo que was only fast in the past because you used to be able to have a pair of 1600 healers in a 2800 lobby or 2500 healers in a 1600 lobby ect (on top of things like initial new content hype)
Healing is a niche role. Then factor healing RSS and it’s just never going to be better due to dampening and the simple fact that if you truly enjoy playing the healing role, you won’t enjoy healing RSS.
If you look closely at the MMR, I’m sure the math checks out. The unfair part is the MMR differential between healers that the game sees as acceptable to get a lobby going.
I was 1400 and wanted to get my elite set on this hpal. I queue up, I’m 1.9 MMR and queue into 2.1-2.2 MMR healers purely from the matchmaking slot machine, and the fact that I was queueing early afternoon instead of primetime.
I went 3-3, 2-4, 2-4 and ended at 1800. Cool for me but obviously complete BS for the other healer. This is further compounded by 0-6 DPS that don’t stand a chance, who completely take away any control you may have had to 5-1 or 6-0 through gameplay.
This just made me realize i havent actually qued shuffle this season and have just been a blitz andy whoops. Rip shuffle. Glad 3s ques are good though. I was doing 2s and those were instant aswell.
