Healers in World of Warcraft often have a hard time. But currently, it is worse than it has been for a long time – at least that’s what many healers find.
That there are mainly damage dealers in World of Warcraft like sand at the sea is an old hat. Tanks and healers, on the other hand, are often sought after for a long time – and the problem seems to have only gotten bigger. Because dungeon groups are searching longer and longer for a healer who can take them through the instance. But the healers are no longer interested. The current season of Dragonflight has only intensified the problem.
What is the problem of healers? Healers have, especially in MMORPGs and in World of Warcraft specifically, primarily one thing: blame. And that always. It doesn’t matter if the damage dealer parked in the fire area for twenty seconds or if the tank turns his back to the boss and wonders why the health bar gets wiped out.
If someone dies, then it is the healer’s fault – at least that is often the common view in random groups. Especially in high ‘Mythic+’ dungeons, this can be very frustrating for healers. Because if you stand in an area in a ‘Mythic+20’ where you shouldn’t be, you are usually dead so quickly that the healer can’t prevent it.
The truth is that players are usually to blame for their deaths when they don’t play mechanics correctly – but still, the healer is often assigned the blame. So, boopkmb writes in a post titled “Rant – Where are the healers?” on Reddit:
I need to vent a bit, because I was just in one of the most toxic dungeons this season.
I am a healer main. I have a rating of 2,600 on my Holy Paladin and 2,800 on my Restoration Shaman. I am currently working on 2,500 on all healers. Normally, I do 20 to 23 dungeons, sometimes only 16s when I want to fill my weekly chest, because I have infinite Aspect Badges anyway. Regardless, I’ve done hundreds of dungeons this season.
It’s easy to understand why no one wants to heal this season. When every mechanic (especially on “Tyrannical”) one-shots people standing in them, dungeons become increasingly frustrating. Combine that with people who don’t want (or can’t) learn mechanics, and you just don’t want to heal anymore.
He then reports about a run in the dungeon Depths of the Abyss, where mechanics were not played correctly at the final boss, and the whole group blamed him for not healing better.
He concludes the post with the summary:
No need to mention this, but relentless mechanics + the inability or unwillingness of people to learn these mechanics lead to healers not wanting to heal anymore.
Boopkmb receives a lot of agreement from the community, especially from other healers.
What solutions are there? In the post, the user firewolf397 has a good idea on how to take some pressure off the healers. The problem is often that DPS players think the healer made the mistake while they themselves were standing in some deadly mechanic. His idea: As in Final Fantasy, simply give DPS debuffs when they fail a mechanic:
I believe Final Fantasy XIV has the right idea for tough content. Tanks are simply wiped with 1000 million damage when they make mistakes, and DPS get a non-removable debuff that lowers their DPS to nonexistent levels, even if they survive the hit and don’t solve the mechanic correctly.
You have to be insane to blame the healer when it’s not their fault because there are clear identifiers of who has failed. Debuffs that reduce damage for failed mechanics would, I believe, be a great motivator for people to play mechanics correctly.
There is a lot of support for this idea:
Suddenly, all DPS would play the mechanics perfectly.
Are you healers in WoW and currently no longer interested in groups with unknown people? Or are you indifferent and able to handle such situations?
