Over the weekend, a bomb exploded in the American forum of World of Warcraft, which will excite healers.
In the Dev Watercooler section, the game developers share insider stories. For the next expansion Warlords of Draenor, comprehensive changes for healers have now been announced.
The Problem
Healers became too strong with the best items
For many players, it’s clear: the stronger the character becomes, the more fun it is to play. At least, if you play as a tank or damage dealer. As a tank, you take less damage, while damage dealers deal more damage.
But what is a healer supposed to do when they can heal more and more, but the fights are over faster due to better damage dealers, and the tank with more resilience needs less healing anyway?
Boredom in the endgame?
Thus far, it has been the case that healing classes became more boring as the raid got better geared and more coordinated. Raids quickly began to forgo one healer and instead bring another damage dealer. The raid nights became dull for healers when facing bosses that the group had already defeated several times.
Healers with better gear and unlimited mana also posed problems for designers: Boss fights increasingly required an instant kill to remain exciting, meaning a mechanic that players had to avoid to not die.
Blizzard’s Solution
Changes affect all healing classes
For the expansion, Blizzard is now announcing significant changes for healers. Across all classes, scaling with items will be reduced: Healers will not benefit from better gear as much as they do now.
Healers will be forced to prioritize healing the most critically injured in an emergency. Also, so-called smart heals will be weakened. With these, the healing spell automatically selects the target in most need of healing.
Many instants will disappear
But that’s not all: Blizzard is also targeting the instant healing spells of the classes. According to Blizzard, they have increased so much in recent years that they are harming the overall gameplay experience. In PvP, it has become nearly impossible to interrupt or silence a healer, as so many abilities no longer require casting time.
How Blizzard sees it
- Blizzard emphasizes that all these changes are not to be understood as a nerf, as they affect all classes. The intention is simply to bring back some elements to the game that have disappeared over the years. The gameplay experience as a healer should remain dynamic and characterized by difficult decisions about which target to heal with which priority in each situation.
- Blizzard is confident that they have learned the right lessons from past expansions. They believe that these changes are the right step towards making the gameplay experience for all healers more dynamic and attractive.
How you see it
How do you see it: Can you get used to healing without instant heals again? Are you looking forward to deciding who in your group will live and who will die? Or do you see the changes as a nasty attack from Blizzard on your favorite character? Is the balance even at risk? Share your opinion with us!
