Healing in Solo Shuffle is the worst experience I've had in my life

PVP Arenas
1

You want more healers to queue Solo Shuffle ? Make it a better experience, because at the moment , it is very unpleasant.

heads-up , Holy TL;DR

  1. Skill expression as a healer is diminished because of Dampening. DPS express their skill and earn CR measured by how well they can setup kills.

Healers, while they CAN contribute to kills, do so nowhere near as DPS, and express their skill and earn CR measured by how well they can keep their team alive.

The insane amounts of Dampening lead to a bad healer and a good healer ending up with the same result. If I’m twice as good at keeping my team alive as the other healer, 50% Dampening slashes that difference in half, often resulting in a scenario where me being twice as good leads to the same outcome - I still can’t keep my team alive because my buttons don’t heal for anything. It doesn’t matter if I can heal 100k HPS and the other healer can only heal 50k HPS (of course HPS is not a measure of skill in PvP, I’m just trying to illustrate the concept with numbers), Dampening makes it so a 50k HPS difference turns into a 25k HPS difference with 50% Dampening after 2 minutes.

Both healers can usually heal through the first set of CDs at around 30 seconds into the game, but are unable to heal through the 2nd set of CDs at around 2:30 minutes into the game, where Dampening is at 50%, regardless of skill.

The vast majority of my games ends at around 2:30 - 3 minutes into a game.

It’s also incredibly unfun that the game nerfs my ability to play my class effectively through an artificial debuff. Its very annoying and unfun to get weaker as the game progresses. I’d much rather have Dampening end the game by disabling mana regeneration as the game goes on than nerf my healing output. I can play around not regening mana, I can be more efficient. I can’t play around my abilities not doing any healing.

  1. Damage profiles further diminish Healer skill expression.

I want to do so so so much more than just heal in Shuffle. I see opportunities to CC or damage all the time. However, I don’t have spare GCDs to use these opportunities. Damage is so spiky, yet again, that not being prepped for a massive damage spike and misplacing a GCD can mean that I instantly lose the round. I have to sit there and be ready for my DPS to get chunked by 50% in a global, so I can’t actually act on the ideas that I have to help secure a kill.

This also leads to

  1. Healing is incredibly punishing, especially for new players. A common phrase high rated healers say when explaining why somebody died is “I messed up my global”. 1 wrong GCD can lead to a loss when damage can take somebody from 100 to 0 in 2 GCDs.

For new players, and pretty much anybody but the top 1%, this leads to a gameplay loop where their eyes are glued to the HP bars 24/7, because their team could die at any moment.

This is not engaging gameplay.

Healing would be more popular if it took 10 seconds for a teammate to go from 100 - 0, but it also took 10 seconds to heal him back up, instead of 1 GCD in either direction. Healers would be able to actually stop staring at their health-bars and mistakes would lead to losing out efficiency, forcing to heal them back up with expensive spells, rather than instantly ending the game. You could actually make the decision to trade a teammates HP or your mana for aggressive plays without it immediately resulting in a loss.

Its also insanely frustrating to see DPS constantly make major mistakes and get away with it, yet misplacing a single global can result in an immediate loss.

Punishing AND unrewarding gameplay is not engaging gameplay.

  1. This type of negative gameplay loop leads to a healer shortage. A healer shortage combined with a lack of skill expression means that healers will clump up at the most played bracket, as climbing or dropping out of that bracket will be difficult since often times it doesn’t even matter what healers do, they don’t impact the result of the game a whole lot in many cases.

There’s going to be a lot of hard-stuck healers in the middle brackets and virtually no healers at the highest ratings and lowest ratings. The top rated DPS literally will not be able to find any games and so wont the lowest rated DPS.

And it’s already starting to happen, despite DPS getting a fraction of the games that healers can.

18 Likes
2

l2p /10char

2 Likes
3

Pretty much agree with everything youve said. Playing dd in solo shuffle is like vacation when compared to healing xD

5 Likes
4

lets hope 4pc bonus and 1 and half minute games will fix that

5

Oh yeah those 20% on Vivify are going to save Mistweaver for sure.

6

what I meant to say is that dds with 4pc will save the day!

1 Like
7

Great advice but irrelevant. Doesn’t matter what they do, for someone it will be not good enough anyway. What’s missing is the purpose to queue solo shuffle at all.
They fixed the leaver issue, they buffed healers, they make solo shuffle even less burstier tomorrow but there is still literally no reason to queue at all. It’s an easy way of getting quick conquest cap, that’s it.

8

They literally just destroyed resto druid with nerfs and prevoker is now garbage to anyone that presses purge while buffing disc/holypala and also nerfing resto shaman.
No they aren’t buffing healers they are making them miserable to play and set bonuses that dps gets is a god tier while for healers is a big joke.

2 Likes
9

Idk about that, gotta play it before judge it. Generally speaking they were buffing healers. And with the recent stamina change, even a disabled ww2 vet should be able to pop defensives before dying in a 10 sec window burst.
The main issue for healers will still remain: No reason to queue solo shuffle over anything else.

10

hp is not gonna fix arena there’s 1 healer with trash set buffs that has to heal dmg from 2x dps with very good set bonuses, on top of that sustain dmg is so high that healers are barely healing outside of burst windows also those healers being r1 not ww2 vets.
There’s no reason to queue ss for dps either? But ppl are gonna queue since they wanna play the game and push some rating/

11

True, but that’s not the point. The DPS pool is already huge enough, you don’t need to incentivize them to play.

Yes but the healers are requested in every aspect of the game, while even nhc and hc dungeons can offer you a bag that has more value than anything SS provides.

Rating is irrelevant and that’s another point. I have several healers and I didn’t push on everyone for 2.1k+… why not? Because there is lierally no reason. I cap conquest and that’s it. WoW is too outdated, the games are not dynamic enough in order to be different, every match is pretty much the same. That’s why you need interesting incentives so people queue in the first place.

12

Yes but I didn’t pay sub to go heal pve and dungeons, me and the rest of the people that like pvp are paying this game so we can go enjoy pvp.

I mean everything is irrelevant even life if u wanna stick to philosophy.
All the games are irrelevant but ppl are still gonna be play them because they enjoy it.
People that like pvp will pay sub to queue some games and enjoy I don’t understand your thinking to be honest at this point.

All we want is very simple, healers to be strong as they were in last expansions, that would fix the lack of healers anyway because pvp healer don’t care about reward or gold they just wanna [edited by Blizzard] enjoy some pvp.

13

Nobody says you gotta do that. That’s the point, the PvP incentives are beyond horrible. This needs a fix. It’s not fun healing low rated people who don’t understand the difference between left and right. At the same time it’s not fun sweating and pushing high rating with the same few meta specs. Unless there is something… somewhere in the end, that makes it somehow worth it. But there is nothing.

Healing in itself is fun.

It’s not about philosophy, it’s about the simple fact that rating is literally irrelevant. Idk how much clearer people need it? Nobody is interested in pushing for rating when there is nothing of value tied to it. And no, title and mount are simply not interesting enough in a 20 years old game with the same few people playing at the top.

I am not even kidding when I say I’d queue rather for 1k gold per game as healer than for some useless title or ugly re-skin at a specific rating.

See how it works out?
This is the lie people tell themselves… like in SL S1 “Oh just because the gear is gated I can’t play” well what now? It’s not gated and the balance is not even remotely worse than in SL1… where all the people at? Hm? Exactly.

It’s not like they are unplayable? So why pretending otherwise?

No it would not.

You are lying to yourself. Nobody enjoys healing negative iq hardstucks who can’t pop a single defensive or actually have a proper go. Before SS we got paid, like a lot lol… for playing with these 1,6k hardstucks. Now we gotta carry them for free? In which universe is this fun?

14

There’s really only one issue when it comes to healing in solo shuffle; the team.

The absurd tunnel-vision is destroying any fun. Enemy team popped all their cds? Ofc they don’t even try to counter it, just stick around in the middle and maintain a 100% uptime. Good idea my man, good idea.

15

Exactly!

Yes, it is fun from time to time to heal plebs but it gets boring quite quick. But it also doesn’t mean healing is not fun. I don’t know why some people fail to understand this simple fact.

16

Pvp incentives were always trash, that’s nothing new, we play because we like it

Again it’s relevant to people who like pushing it, that’s why billions of ppl are playing games today. most like to push ratings, mobas are all about rating yet they are the most popular games in the world, shooter games too. Like competative aspect is what majority likes.

Actually balance is FAR FAR worse than Shadowlands, Shadowlands was a chill experiance at healing compared to this garbage.
About the gear, for me it was never an issue I didn’t complain about it but I do like DF approach to make gearing easier for pvp which on the sides just makes easier for people to reroll to FOTM.

Well as long as a spec exists it’s playable, you can even get high ratings with a tank, or any weakest spec, so again u mixing wrong things together.

Problem is the difference between a healer and a dps.
Dps can have 1.5k in 2s and 3s and yet get 3k in solo queue, while with healer you can just dream about it if not super skilled.
Same thing is in 3s problem is the skillgap between healers and dps, to play a dps is way too simple, while healer on the other hand has to worry about dampening, mortal strike, mana, positioning, cc, cc dodging, dmging, keeping everyone alive.
ON top of that healer in DF is so badly designed that ir cant even heal properly through sustained dmg. Does that make any sense to you?

again if u play to earn gold that’s a different thing I personally don’t care about the gold, If I want it Ill buy it, not playing this game as a job simulator.
All I want is healers to be buffed.

17

That’s your opinion and that’s fine but the data proves otherwise.

Ye and those are a minority of a minority and barely existing.

Uhm… for rating? A safe: No

Ye, right… no game provided… let’s say… COSMETICS?! in order to make the MAJORITY play?
You don’t need to guess and make weird comparisons (which don’t work btw) with other games. Check the data, it’s there. Less arenas are played than SL S1, included solo shuffle games. Coincidence? Because the balance was definitely not better than it is now.

What? Ok now that’s copium²
Especially start of the expansion where pretty much only holy pala was viable and where ret one shot was an ACTUAL ONE SHOT with no counter play whatsoever. And the list goes on… DF is flawless compared to that.

Ye, the play it for a day or two (like back in WoD) and quit.

Not sure where this comes from. I had no issue getting rating… yet… who cares? The rating is irrelevant. It literally doesn’t matter if I am 1.2k or 2.1k? Who cares about it in this fiesta? It’s not like there is a REWARD?! :wink:

They can tho? It’s just dampening kicks in higher in SS while 99% of people have no idea how to peel. Now people just face this reality, while most of them prolly played 2s before that in the first place.

It’s about incentives. Hands down DF is way better than SL balance wise but there is just no reason to play. We just need incentives, every game gives you some sort of fake incentives.
You prolly argue the balance is bad, I argue it’s the lack of incentives. I also honestly can’t imagine anyone who with a straight face would claim SL S1 balance was significantly better than DF.

18

maybe pvp is simply not for you mate.
also its pretty condescending to assume every healer is better than any dps, there is loads of dps players who will think the same about you.

the lack of healers really does give some of you a god complex

19

I played holy priest and pretty much destroyed holy palas both 2s and 3s for glad push.
Ret oneshot? Ret was barely A tier class in 3s lol, worse than garbage in 2s and in 3s only carried by arms warrior which was omega op.
Idk healing was way easier in SL, that’s why u got Shadowlands glads that are hardstuck in 1.5.1.8k rating in 3s in DF.

Mobas and shooter games give bad or no incentives yet they are the most popular.
But ofc I wouldn’t mind if they give some extra stuff for us playing pvp.
The problem is that’s not the real issue, the balance is, dampening is too high, dmg is off the chart and healing is beyond the worst than any other expansion.

Oh yeah? Prove me wrong, go play resto shaman and get same rating as ele.
There’s no complexes, just facts, healers need to either be simplified to level of dps, or simply buffed idk why are u offended by it?
You wanna stay here and say to me that ele is harder than resto? Bro u don’t even have as many buttons as resto, hell u dont even need to cast as ele, most spells are instant. [Edited by Blizzard - don’t swear, not even masked swearing]
U dont have to worry about billions of stuff healers do.
Yes thats why most ppl play dps, its simpler, its easier to play to understand and to climb the ladder.

Maybe it’s not for you since your fragile ego got hurt way too easy.

20

You are talking about end of S1 or something, after holy priest buffs.

Divine Toll literally did one shot people. I am not saying ret was S tier or anything, it still did one shot, the point here is balance.

SL S2 glads, yes, that’s a different story tho.

They all give some sort incentives but they are most popular because they require no time investment in order to play those. The games are simple.

I mean if you argue for SL S1 having significantly better balance than DF S1, then we are living on different planets anyway.
I honestly didn’t see a single person (except you) arguing SL S1 balance was better lol and since I’d claim that’s not the case, the only logical reason for the lack of people is the lack of incentives and/or somewhat meaningful long term goal. The useless mount and title simply don’t cut it.