TLDR: healing lower-level targets is too slow/difficult and healing higher-level targets is too fast/easy.
CONTEXT
In Normal dungeons, incoming damage scales based on your character level so that when everyone gets hit by an ability, it’s roughly the same percentage of everyone’s health (depending on gear).
Example: E.D.N.A. (first boss of The Stonevault), Refracting Beam, according to the dungeon guide (note: combat log / Details show normalized damage numbers)
| level | damage |
|---|---|
| 70 | 42,478 |
| 71 | 72,734 |
| 75 | 138,910 |
| 80 | 344,972 |
This is ballpark 10% of players’ health (depending on gear), although the majority of players are overgeared the first few levels.
Similarly, there’s healing level scaling based on the healer’s and target’s levels, which is meant to prevent a couple gameplay problems that would otherwise occur:
- a lower-level healer healing a higher-level target should not take forever because of a much bigger health bar
- a higher-level healer should not heal a lower-level target to full in one spell because of much smaller health bar (relative to spell power)
PROBLEM
The healing level scaling should match the enemy damage scaling, but instead it is way more. Here’s some numbers I got from the combat log while out of combat on my level 75, ilvl 495 Resto Druid (Thriving Vegetation is the new up-front heal talent for Rejuvenation):
Your Thriving Vegetation healed [Level 70 Party Member] 0 Nature. (3,905 Overhealed)
Your Thriving Vegetation healed [Level 71 Party Member] 0 Nature. (8,259 Overhealed)
Your Thriving Vegetation healed [Level 75 Self] 0 Nature. (48,485 Overhealed)
Your Thriving Vegetation healed [Level 80 Party Member] 0 Nature. (486,426 Overhealed)
This is ballpark 1% hp on low-level target, 3% hp on same-level target, and 15% hp on high-level target. It basically creates the opposite problems that healing scaling is supposed to solve.