Entries in healing discussion (2)
Throwing Out The Big Heal
I'll admit it, I did not level my priest from level 70 to 80 as holy. The dual spec talent, while nearly pointless on my rogue, was too enticing for my priest. So Solidsagart went to the dark side, literally, while making her way to the end game. Since reaching level 80 she's done a complete 180, focusing solely on healing. I've paid my dues (being blamed for everything), learned the ropes (let hunters/rogues die), and found out which responsibilities I like and don't like.
Being the critical person that I am I've realized how poorly designed the healing mechanics are right now. The developers know there's an issue and plan to rectify the sitution in Cataclysm, a topic I've discussed, but meter epeen blinds many players. Ghostcrawler summed the problem up nicely in a blue post from yesterday.
"Now in general I wish there was a little more coordination among healers, but the current damage model we have just doesn't really allow it. I remember when tanking Molten Core, that the priest would say over vent "Big heal coming on the OT!" as he powered up a Greater Heal. You don't have that luxury these days. One of our designers was watching an old Illidan video recently and remarked how everyone was at 50% for so much of the fight. Now days someone is at 100%, will hit 100% in the next couple of GCDs, or will be dead. In that environment, you'd get "Big --" out of your mouth before it would be too late. Players need more health and heals have to be a little more expensive."
Healing Is Boring
How many of you just yawned? Thanks crazy_ryan.
Getting my priest to the point that she could heal challenging raids took some time. I spent hours inside various dungeons farming loot and badges. It is to the point now that my alt has as many Glory of the Hero sub-achievements as my main, and that's without even trying. Initially the process was a lot of fun. As a poorly geared level 80 I was constantly busy spamming heals, dispelling and general riff raff. In essence, I was re-learning most of the encounters from the new perspective of a healer, so my brain was engaged. The switch from pure DPS to pure healing extended the replayability of these dungeon.
Unfortunately, I still hit that wall. You know, the one that makes getting instance X a drag, where you always speedrun instance Y, and contemplate bailing on Z. The wall I am referring to is being overgeared, and that's when healing is incredibly boring.