A random idea for a different type of anti-healing effect

PVP Arenas
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inb4 people crucify me for suggesting the gameplay for healers would become more difficult, I’m making this suggestion with the condition that MS effect outliers would be reduced.

So the idea is to deal damage to the healer when healing the target. So far we’ve only had MS effects of various kinds that reduces the healing received by a fixed percentage, and the DK anti-healing ability which absorbs the healing the target receives by a fixed amount instead of just reducing it by a percentage, thus providing variety.

But we’ve seen changes like MS effects going back up to pretty much vanilla levels for some classes, while remaining somewhat reasonable for other classes.
So Blizzard clearly don’t want long games by design, compared to expansions like WoD or Legion which could really go deep into dampening.

The problem with the direction the game design is heading towards, is that the MS effects are becoming very monotonous for healers, and very frustrating to play against, while also coupled with the dampening.
So if they would bring MS effects more in line and reduce all of them, while not changing dampening more than they already have, but adding a new kind of anti-healing ability which damages the one healing the target, it’d provide more variety, make more comps able to secure kills, as well as making the gameplay a bit more friendly towards healers since it’s not always just a flat MS percentage reducing the healing output.

Of course, people would play comps where there’s both an MS effect and this effect that damages the one healing the target, but by reducing the MS effects to make 'em all be more reasonable, then this new kind of anti-healing can fill that void.

As for comps that’d play without an MS effect entirely, they tend to have a high dmg output already, but anyway, these changes would also fit in better with a high sustained gameplay design across the board instead of a heavy burst gameplay design like it’s now (and has been for a while).

It brings forth more skill expressions possible for healers, and more swap opportunities for DPSers.

Anyway, just a random thought I had.

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So all a Ret Warr would have to do is train me for 10 minutes and then make 1 swap on my healer since he’s been killing himself by healing me?

Yeah hard pass, doesn’t make any sense.

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Those are number tuning issues though. It also doesn’t have to be given to everyone without an MS effect either. There’d also need to be given considerations towards hots vs. direct heals, and selfheals and so on, which would require different kinds of designs for such a type of anti-healing ability.

Although SPs don’t exactly stack on their healers often, so it could also be addressed in mobility by delaying the time it takes to swap, and/or increase kite ability of the healer and/or increase anti-mobility options for the SP and/or whatever the SP is playing with, and so on.

It’s a suggestion for a concept, as for the details in how it would look in the number tuning isn’t even part of the suggestion.
I also mentioned it fits better with high sustained gameplay design instead of heavy burst.

The point of the suggestion for a new type, is to move away from the monotonous MS percentage gameplay design that’s pretty much a given for everyone to have or play with at this point, and to provide more variety in how it can be designed.

Another way to tune it would be to reduce the effect of one or the other or both when they’re both on a target for example, there are many ways it can be designed in the details. But that isn’t part of this suggestion.

Healers need more variety and reduced MS effects, or else the game is heading towards a dark hole. Hence why it’d be good if a different type of anti-healing effect would take its place, that adds more variety.

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All they have to do is nerf the overperforming ones, I.e. Slaughterhouse and nerf the self healing of specs where it is nonsensical for them to be healing so much. Pretty much every other MS effect has a reasonable outplay to it.

Pretty much all the healers I know hated healing last season because of Fury Warrior’s. A 40% MS on an all but 100% uptime + dampening is the dumbest thing imaginable

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They could also just tune down MS, dampening and dps healing a bit tbh.

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All you’ll be stuck with is either upsetting healers or dpsers in such a case. As for slaughterhouse, I don’t know what it looks like now in DF but in SL s3 and s4 the 100% uptime was related to the reck proc which would massively increase rage generation. If there’d be no reck proc in those two seasons, it’d be like night and day with the 8 stacks of slaughterhouse almost always being limited to the manual reck pop.

And yes, it was the one that stood out the most. But there are other MS effects, like wound poison for example, that’s getting closer and closer to the old days too. Not to mention how common it is to have an MS effect these days too.

All in all, it combines into something tedious and repetitive for healers, and vastly more matchups against MS effects than not.

Variety is good.

If all they’d do was that, then not only is it back to the same old higher dampening games which isn’t exactly an improvement, it’d also still be as monotonous as before. It’d just last longer per match, is all.

Reducing MS effects, but also compensating for it with a different type of anti-healing ability so it doesn’t end up just making games take longer while also giving healers more skill expressions (i.e. you’d possibly become able to “carry” more than now), would provide the better outcome for pretty much everyone.

It’s also good to reinvent the gameplay sometimes, instead of keeping it stale. Even though everyone got big redesigns now with the new talent trees, this aspect of healing hasn’t really changed much.

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Tbh ms wouldn’t be mandatory if self-healing wasn’t that broken as it is rn.

I think spell like sharpen / psyfiend are good cause you have to press it at a right moment to get a good value from it instead of a massive one like slaughterhouse.

Maybe they should remove passive ms and give sharpen to every one but having to think about when to press it well to get a good value and would increase the skill cap.

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The amount of MS effects and how much they reduce have been steadily increasing from expansion to expansion for quite a while now. I’d argue they’re probably part of the tuning process as well, making damage and healing numbers adjusted for the pace with MS effects up as a given.

Anyway, how’s slaughterhouse looking now in DF? I haven’t been able to play yet. Is it still up at 8 stacks 100% of the time, like in SL s3 and s4?

But the reason for the suggestions is as stated already, that it’s to provide more variety, make more variations of comps viable, and provide more skill expressions for healers, while also providing room in the game’s design to reduce the MS effects by compensating with another type of anti-healing such as this.

Because MS effects being more and more common and becoming stronger and stronger, as well as dampening ramping up faster, are all having a negative effect on the space in the game’s design for healers.
But at the same time we don’t want matches to drag on forever.

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Bruh I stopped reading right here.

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Sure that’s why I said they could maybe remove the usual passive ms and add more spells like psyfiend / sharpen / necrotic strike etc…
So it’s not 100% uptime and you have to use it correctly and not randomly.

It could be a totem for shaman, a dot for caster like maledict trinket etc…

I think ms is a tool that is as important as dampening, but like you said probably numbers are tune around it Idk.
But I still like the idea of a cd, it’s fun to press imo.

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I doubt players would react well to that. It’d naturally become part of the CD trading, but depending on the CD it might be useful a little bit without the burst up. However, if it’d result in players staying near 100% more of the time and it dragging into dampening more than before, then players would more than likely protest strongly against that.

I mean sure, it’d become easier to heal, but it kinda makes the sustained even less meaningful than it already is.

Although I’m all for a heavy sustained gameplay design instead of this heavy burst gameplay design, so if we’d get that with such changes then I’m all for it.

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