PVP - the healer problem

Community General Discussion
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edit on the end

I don’t know whether to open this topic here in GD or in the PvP session…

The queues are huge due to the lack of available healers.

Many people are thinking about the problem and are trying to provide solutions to improve the healers’ situation (on the pvp forum sessions)… trying to make them have more fun or be something more “fair” for them.

Between one answer and another, there are things that would be interesting to see, others not so much in my opinion, this will vary according to each mentality.

In any case…

I didn’t come here to give a “solution” to the situation of current healers because this leads to gigantic discussions where I’ve never seen anyone here come to agree (most people) or come close to good resolutions.

But, I have a thought that there should be MORE class variations with the healer and tank specs. Here I will focus on the possible healer specs.

So…

Whenever I would level up a character that had all 3 DPS specs, the big problem was the time to enter a dungeon.

Nowadays we have news that we will have AI bots to fill the healer and tank positions, making the queues better for dungeons… but I don’t think this is something that will become available for pvp.

So, they may improve for PvE, artificially speaking, but for PvP things will stay the same.

Well, at the moment, I would like to get the DK elite set, I’m on my way to do so, I started recently…however, the queues sometimes reach 40 minutes…which makes it very difficult for me, because I recently started dating and my available time has decreased a little.

If I had a healer spec …I would help myself and help others too, killing two problems at once.

“Ha, but why don’t you play priest then, or paladin” - because I want the DK set…dã…

then…

I’ve been thinking about some new specs that wouldn’t be absurd to exist.

For classes that don’t have a healer spec (for pvp) :

The easy ones to think about:
Mages;
DKs;
Rogues;

The most difficult:
Warriors;
Hunters;

The one that I find almost impossible :
DH;

Mages:

White Wizard. This is the simplest, easiest thing that every rpg has.
The White Mage has always been a healer. With white healing and regeneration magic.

FF has a white mage spec as a healer.

There is a Wikipedia page talking about:

It’s not difficult to think about spells: Regenerative magic, regenerative magical explosion, regenerative shot…summon a white ball that shoots several regenerative white balls…summon a familiar that helps heal targets over time…

We can take an example from many games like Ragnarok online, the priest had a spell called sanctuary that placed a white area on the ground where whoever stood on it was healed over time…


(I see this white area more as white magic than a priest magic)

There are N million spells that could serve this purpose.

DKs :

For DK, I also don’t think it’s difficult to think of a necromantic healer.

Using death magic to regenerate flesh, closing wounds with shadow magic (that wound Sylvanas got on her face when Saurfang hit her clearly had a trail of shadow magic running there).

Siphons that pass life from DK to someone, that pull someone’s life to someone else…

Summon a valkyria to assist with absorptions or take damage in someone else’s place.

I don’t think it’s difficult to think about ramifications for this spec.

ESO has a necromantic healer spec.

Rogues :

This is easy.

Plague doctor. Focusing on Potions.

There are many examples for this, I’ll stick with one:

Singed - LoL

although he is a tank, he is the perfect example that a rogue can use potions to heal, heal himself, heal others, have area healing, demand healing, regenerative smokes… the possibilities are many.

Now the most difficult ones:

Warriors;
Hunters;

For warriors I thought of something like a support, like the one we received recently.

In dark souls 3, we have the possibility of getting a spear that buffs whoever is nearby, there are shouts that increase regeneration, in the elden ring we have weapons that can grant shield bubbles to certain targets… in wow itself we have the skill intervene that the warriors use…

it would be a class based on shouts to increase regeneration, intervention to provide shields, banners to improve defenses and speeds, skills that could provide shields, walls, defense fields, etc…

Hunters are the most difficult, because unlike DHs who could have a spec like Guldan who used fel magic to heal Thrall when he was a baby, hunters only have one possibility: traps and nature effect bombs that heal.

They could use healing pets, skills that call a butterfly in an area with regenerative powder, among other crazy ideas I had, but by far it’s the weirdest spec for this, but it could work…

The idea of the butterfly is not absurd considering that BM has a COBRA SHOT!

Cobra SHOT !

For DHs, I find it very difficult to be accepted because it is a class based on Illidan.

Warlocks:

There could be a spec based on fel healing, like Guldan did, but… if there is going to be a necromancer, I think the idea would be unfeasible. I can think of warlocks tanks more easily, but it’s not for this topic.

in the end…

I keep thinking that if I had a healer spec, in my DK, I would have already picked up the set, as the queues would be much smaller for me and it would have improved the queue for other people.

With more healer specs for classes that only have DPS, we could have a possibility where people who wanted the set could join that new spec or new people could like the fantasy itself and have fun playing it.

This would improve several scenarios where the game has “holes” like this specific case…

…and to balance it out, I’ve seen the Blizzard team working a lot on this, although they buff and nerf specs in…strange ways…

Anyway, that’s my idea and my contribution today. See you next time.

Here are some arts to spice up your imagination:

(it’s time for a set like this one, Blizz…c’mon…)

edit

(this is another sugestion)

I understand you, I understand what you mean, but I’m a living proof that if there was a healer spec for DK I would play with it, precisely because I’m not selfish and i’m trying to think about a solution for my problem AND the general pvp SS problem.

Other people said that the solution would be for me to play with an existing healer to improve the scenario - but then I’m not farming my DK set.

What if…instead of farming a specific set we needed to get 1800 on a character and get a token to buy a set of a class we want?

1 token per class, so we would have to have some healers to farm multiple tokens for multiple sets?

I would play with two or three existing healers specs, to get two or three sets for my other toons…

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They should just remove healing from pvp and make players rely on their CDs and self heals and consumables.

Healing players that do what I said above along with throwing out some peels and CC is actually kind of fun.

But in reality healing in pvp is a lot like herding cats.

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All I can add is that this problem is a very real opportunity for PvE players who want to see what PvP healing is like.

A similar opportunity presented itself to me years ago when a player I PvE raided with approached me saying if I could be as reliable and prepared for PvP as I always was for the raid, their team would teach me everything I needed to know.

In my case he said “all you need to do is level an alt on Tichondrius”

Wait, what???

Well I did that and they did train me to heal PvP.

The main difference is player-specific macros and more situational awareness because unlike PvE, arena is not a matter of learning a repetitive dance to perfection - its all improvisation (if that makes sense?). Also learn to dash like your life depends upon it because the opponent will always try to take you out first.

Anyway the first season I did this with them we stumbled some. But as I grew to anticipate what my team members would do next we rose rapidly and by season 2 hit Gladiator. By the end of the expac we all earned Hero of the Horde in RBG.

That group is long gone from Warcraft but I’ll always look back fondly on my foray into high end and intense PvP.

Its something I’d never have had a chance to do if I wasn’t a desperately needed healer.

So, healer, if you feel like trying?

Now is the time!

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This is more realistic than giving non-healing classes a healing spec. Every class can deal damage. And its easier to add variations of self-healing than gin up whole new specs.

I healed Shuffle. Im going Elemental until something changes. DPS need to bear the burden for awhile, one way or another. Self-healing or queue times.

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No.

Theres healing classes in the game already. The solution to long queue times due to a lack of healers is to play a healer yourself and be part of the solution

Giving non healing classes the ability to heal isnt suddenly going to make someone want to heal. Its a mindset. Not a spec thing

Same for tanking

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That has been my experience as well. I can teach someone the basics of healing and tune them based upon their parses… but I can’t get someone who doesn’t want to heal to enjoy healing. And we all do best with things we enjoy.

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Make a TL;DR.

The simple solution that would make everyone but healers happy is delete healers from PvP.
They are just annoying buffers to extend combat, and in any large setting they are the focus target.

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They need to find a way to make healing more fun. I enjoyed healing as a priest but season 2 hit and it sort of felt like everything was stacking against me.

I haven’t tried healing since then but the seeming lack of heals is saying something.

To describe what I’m seeing even more, I met a wonderful healer in a mythic dungeon the other day and they responded: “thanks, but I only am healing as a means to an end. I rather dps.” Lol

And that’s exactly what Ive been thinking of doing myself. To learn Holy Paladin because my guild has almost no healers.

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Its a very tough role. When my team would get annoyed I was a slow learner I’d always remind them of that Ann Richards quote: “ Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

Apologies to all the men who heal, but a support role is supportive - not seen as otherwise (but maybe they should be seen as more)

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Theres a few outliers as there are with everything. But this argument was brought up with Evokers as well. And data showed that there wasnt an increase in healers, they just shuffled around (like with meta rerollers)

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There’s a lack of healers in PvP because no one WANTS to heal. Adding MORE healing specs does not fix this issue in any capacity.

It’s like when people say “oh we need more tank specs to fix the lack of tanks in PvE content” when more specs doesn’t magically make more tanks in a large enough capacity to solve the issue.

I’d play PvP more if the way I like to heal was more viable but I genuinely have no idea on if the more melee focused Mistweaver playstyle is viable at all.

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Adding more types of healers isn’t going to solve the lack of healers. It’s the role that people don’t want to play, not the classes.

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It’s a good idea to give every class a healing spec so then dps only players won’t have any excuses.

But dps only players are very selfish and would rather just complain rather then help fix the problem. So i say let them sit in their 2 hour long queues, we healers can just laugh at them.

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I don’t think White Mages would work in the Warcraft universe. The only “White” magic in Warcraft is the Light, and we already have priests and paladins.

Just give mages a Chronomancer spec. Use time magic to rewind wounds.

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The single biggest issue right now for lack of PVP healers in PVP is the community.

I heal solo shuffle every week, and people are just down right nasty to me. So many times dumb DPS make bad mistakes, and the first thing they do is blame the healers.

There are so many noobs in solo shuffle right now that don’t have even the basic understanding of how to play in arena PVP, this leads to huge mistakes on their part. Their first inclination is to blame the healer.

I see it all the time, healers are getting completely demoralized right now because the community in this game is just toxic.

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I’d rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon than heal a pug… just sayin’

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The main problem is that healing in arenas is really not a fun experience for most people. I would never go around and recommend my friends “hey you should try healing arenas in WoW, it’s fun!”.

  1. Suddenly you are up close and personal with the opponents, much more stressful
  2. One death decides the round. Even more pressure.
  3. Bursty design of combat makes your healing irrelevant unless you (and your allies) know how to use cooldowns effectively
  4. It’s not just healing, you have to CC and avoid CC constantly

All this makes arena healing an intense experience. In BGs at least if someone dies in a team fight, it’s not a big deal. One team fight is not the game. And there are also other healers to cover you. Arena healing is never going to be popular.

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It’s because arenas are not fun for many people, and solo shuffle is aggravating to climb on with a healer.

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PvP has always been and will always be a “side game” - never the main event so I agree it will never be “popular”.

But on many of the traditional PvP realms you’ll find guilds that are all about PvP and within those are a number of very supportive arena and RBG teams. In my view to succeed in PvP a team needs to practice a lot together and get to the point where they can anticipate each other. You need that synergy and in that is the FUN.

I’ve always shunned PUG-life because its simply not a viable structure.

What sucessful corporation would ever adopt a model where every single day they open the doors to random people, assign various tasks that require teamwork, then at the end of the day they all leave and you start entirely with random strangers again the next day.

Nobody… well, maybe some construction jobs where you roll up to Home Despot and whoever is standing outside hops in the pickup truck.

But is that the kind of work any of you aspire to do?

Yuck >.<

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I don’t heal BGs for fun. I do it for Marks. However, I have discovered that healing is the only way I can be remotely useful to the group.

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