When Shamans were the top healers in Mythic content during the first month, the community was quick to cry for nerfs. Now, Discipline Priests are by far the best healers in timed runs, with Mistweavers a distant second. Looking at the leaderboards, it’s almost entirely Discipline Priests, with a few Mistweavers sprinkled in—and the first Shaman doesn’t show up until rank 255. So, why isn’t anyone calling for nerfs now?
Discipline has also been dominating as the top healer in PvP since the start of the expansion, with no signs of slowing down.
Honestly, why would anyone play another healer at this point?
Cancelled my sub last week due to poor tuning in this game. Weeks have passed with no significant meta shifts.
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The .01% shouldn’t really bother you that much. A meta always forms at the top end and even if disc was only .01% better than rsham, people pushing keys that high would take it.
Rsham is still an incredibly good healer and far more capable of carrying pugs than disc.
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I completely agree—all healers are viable and capable of achieving KSM. My issue lies with how quickly Resto Shaman was nerfed and how long Disc Priest has remained dominant across multiple forms of content. The lack of meaningful tuning has ruined this expansion for me, and I’ve canceled my subscription because of it.
What really gets me is the lack of complaints about Disc compared to Resto Shaman. Is it because more people enjoy playing Disc? Or do they just prefer seeing Priest at the top? My guess is it’s because Disc plays more like a DPS class.
As someone who almost exclusively plays PvP, it’s frustrating to see Disc dominate in both PvP and PvE for so long. I get that there will always be a meta, but when one healer is the clear choice for all forms of content, why play anything else? It’s exhausting having to press three times the buttons to achieve what Disc can with one.
Personally, I’d love to see the meta shaken up on a monthly basis, with no class dominating across multiple forms of content.
I think it’d be weird for there to be a nerf to Discipline because Priests, in general, have not received their 11.0 rework, for there to be a basis for a nerf.
Discipline did get a last minute buff to dungeon Atonement at the start of the season (bitter aside: while Holy received no assistance to its anemic dungeon AoE healing), but… for the most part… the “nerfs” are still “pending.”
We’ll see if there’s a “balance of power” in 11.1, but at this point, what would they take from Discipline that would be fair?
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I can only speak from a pvp perspective since that is the main content I play. I would get rid of the 2 charges of pain suppression to start. That was added in dragonflight I believe and they would be fine without it.
A nerf to Power Word Shield would be nice as well. Mitigating damage is better than just pure healing and this seems like it needs toned down. Even an increase to mana consumption would help in pvp as every disc I go against seems to always have mana while spamming every spell they have.
Disc output is definitely higher than it probably should be, but the utility resto shaman brings is just unmatched.
I don’t understand cancelling your sub when you’re playing one of the top 3 current healers. Unless you’re pushing the top end of m+ I don’t think any group is going to turn you down based on your spec.
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This is definitely a weird one for m+. Why some healers need to be conscientious of mana and disc has infinite mana is confusing to me.
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I pretty much exclusively play pvp where shaman is one of the worst healers. But I took notice to people calling for nerfs when Rsham was top in mythic, and blizz listened. I don’t see anyone calling for nerfs for disc currently when its top in pvp and pve. Not enough meta shifting for me to stay subscribed.
I think the reason you’re not hearing as much outcry on the mythic+ side is because the season’s nearing its endpoint. Most people have achieved their seasonal goals and are on chill farm mode, so they’re not as threatened by a spec being dominant.
If Disc is still comparatively strong next season, you’ll see the same pushback Shamans got. But, likely not until then.
And as for PVP, well, I figure it’s probably the same problem PVP always has. The community is too small to make a lot of noise unless they’re united and fired up over an issue.
Discipline isn’t getting nerfed because Blizzard is currently putting next to no effort into priest - they’re basically balancing it so that it is playable and letting it be at that. Priest has uniquely received zero design changes in TWW, so the lack of attention it’s getting seems likely to be due to a forthcoming major rework at least as large as what shaman got.
Why is it dominating in high M+? Because that’s what happens in M+, and it isn’t always due to healer tuning but the composition of the rest of the team. Discipline has historically been the worst healer in M+ by a significant margin, and has been slowly trending up as Blizzard finally starts giving it scaling to its throughput for small group content after years of its healing assuming you’re healing 20+ players at the same time.
Resto shaman took one nerf during season 1 - to Earthen Harmony. Every other balance change it received has been damage buffs to its active attacks and a nerf to Acid Rain.
Shaman didn’t drop out of favor in M+ because it’s weak or because discipline is OP. It dropped out of favor because team compositions in high keys primarily because enhancement is ludicrously good and doubling down on shaman utility was becoming less valuable. Discipline slots into the existing compositions better than other healers despite its utter lack of utility because PI is problematic, Fortitude is really strong in high keys, and paladin, shaman, and evoker are all so loaded with utility that priest having none isn’t a problem.
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… worst healer for PuGs by a significant margin…
I won’t tolerate this Holy Priest slander. Give us back our L.
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Out of all the roles, I feel healer often is the last pick in a group to fill the remaining gaps (utility wise). If there is no gap to fill, you start looking at throughput.
Disc has the most damage reduction out of all the healers, so it’s a distinction that makes it desirable in an infinitely scaling context for the high end players pushing the top.
Does this mean disc is OP? I’m not sure… I can confidently say that disc is not very good outside of the organized groups because of this same distinction…
Also, you often want a PI in the top high end because the slight increase it can give matter the most there. This means that priest is very desirable class to bring in high keys and you will want to bring the spec that brings the most value right now. Historically, healing priest doesn’t take that spot all that much though.
Now ask yourself these questions. Why was shaman at the top in the beginning of the season? Was it to fill some gap, or was it because it was very strong? Also, if there is already a shaman in the comp, and does bringing a healer shaman give enough +value compared to bringing something else?
In several past expacs disc was the most mana stared healer in the game and required Innervate. Be thankful and enjoy it while it lasts
Crying resto sham? Seriously?
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Both priest healers are historically terrible in M+. We can both take the L until TWW when Atonement healing was doubled.
You’re not running high keys and guess what, shaman is dominant in mid keys still. You’re looking for reasons to be angry.
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Resto Shaman and Disc are both OP for different reasons. Resto Shaman has the best dispels, best ranged short CD kick (even more OP since the changes to stops and mob recasts), Shaman has tons of CDs, top tier group AOE heals, good damage etc… They are the most complete healer and probably the easiest healer to play in the game.
Disc Priest offers next to zero utility and is just raw damage and healing with massive shields to cheese damage. Disc’s uncapped AOE damage makes them almost as good as another DPS, while their massive shields and seemingly infinite cooldowns make them the obvious choice at the highest levels where not having such big shields could be instant death.
MW monk is another insane healer right now that nobody is talking about for some reason. Their damage and healing is cracked and they have some pretty good cooldowns to counter the current dungeon rotation, along with good dispels.
For me I play Holy because it’s my spec. I started WoW in Vanilla as a Holy Priest, and I’ve mostly played Holy with brief stints and Disc and Shadow early on in my WoW life. I think since BFA I’ve been a Holy Priest purist though, and I haven’t cared about or done anything major with my other specs since. I maintain proficiency, but I do not enjoy them like I enjoy Holy. Play what you like and break the meta I guess, that’s what I try to do.
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Sorry but even if they find 1 healer is .1% better or more consistent a lot of the top players will gravitate to them and exaggerate the delta between them. I think most people underestimate balance here, and if we could go back to a time where not everything everyone does is recorded for stats, there would be a lot less to complain about. Enjoy the game and play it the way you want to and stop worrying about everything else.
I know sometimes there are unnecessary struggle that should be addressed. That’s different case.
No, it’s not that simple. Holy Priest is a great example. We have no real way to deal with our full group getting rotted down at higher levels. We simply cannot heal past our Trail of Light and Light Weaver cleaves. Halo and Divine Hymn won’t be enough to help people survive. Meanwhile Disc for example, can pop damage and either dome, rapture, or radiance into tons of DPS while keeping their shadow fiend off CD constantly. They are designed perfectly to heal all 5 members of the group at once.
If we take CoH and PoH for group healing they will be too weak to matter, and we’d have to give up all of our damage or single target healing. Very crap design…
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