Raising awareness on state of damage intake and healing

Gameplay Dungeons, Raids and Scenarios
1

Hello.

TL;DR: relevant articles/videos from r1 healers at the bottom, damage too spiky, healers are too good, it’s not fun.

The issue has been going for a while and we haven’t heard much from Blizzard on this topic. Starting from DF, damage intake became too spiky and healers got too much power to compensate it. It lead to a relatively toxic gameplay pattern where it’s not really fun to heal and not really fun to be a non-healer.

I am an experienced player who sits and studies like a book worm, I can do +10 keys and AOTC week1 of new season in old season gear. But what about new players or the players who don’t wanna do boring learning and they just want to have fun smashing the buttons?

I’m trying to think how some fresh folks are coming in, hearing M+ is a banger mode. And then what? They most likely 2-3chest their +2 key, get into 4-5. Okay, maybe not 2-3 chest it, but they can realistically get into 7-8 range relatively quickly without progressing much gear. Guess what’s gonna happen next? They will get oneshot by many things. I wouldn’t be surprised if they quit the game in case it happens often.

In previous expansions, damage intake was smoother, giving players time to recover. Now we have to stack cooldowns and/or be proactive. You probably saw an influx of mages in TWW S1 dying to every other mechanic, because mages are only immortal when they play proactively around incoming damage. I don’t think it’s fun generally. I’m a mage player who was dying like a fly at start and it feels good now being able to survive most things due to my decision making. But that can’t be good for all players. I’m not a healer player, but I guess healers doing M+ are praying for the dps players to press their defensive when a fatal mechanic comes in.

And what about raid healing? Mechanic comes in > all raid takes 80% maxhp damage > healers recover it in 2-3 globals. And if the healers are learning the game and not topping the raid before new mechanic comes in, it’s a wipe. I think it’s a toxic gameplay.

I don’t have any solutions that would fit entire playerbase. I like what Theun & Jak suggested. Let’s raise awareness of this issue. Maybe Blizzard balance & raid/dungeon encounter teams will make some changes.

Theun video from 2 years ago (has the original AutomaticJak wowhead article in the description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0sidEyYijU
AutomaticJak recent follow up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVtmJI7GzxM

xoxo,
Miraage

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I dont mind spiky damage. Personally.

What I do mind are the combo-wombos of 1-shots that creates. Which is the main source of grievance from players.

There are two ways to tackle this: Dungeon design. And Class design.

Things like this should be done in the PTR from the start. Not 1 month into the season:

Those dungeons were a pain to heal because of those casters. Because they created combo-wombos 1-shoting people.

And then trinkets like these:

https://www.wowhead.com/item=242393/loomithars-living-silk?bonus=12043:5906

They are such a game-changer when it comes to healing keys that they should literally be baseline for all healers. Like the PvP trinkets basically.

Shields change the dynamic of healing by a large margin, unlike the classic approach of “topping up health bars”.

And finally, my main topic of concern is this:

(A) You use the word “toxic” too lightly. Save it for people and things that actually deserve it. Dont confuse it with “frustrating”.

(B) My main concern about new players is the UI problem. The impact of having addons like “VohDoh, Cell, or Healbot” improves performance by such a massive degree that they should be baseline in the game.

I know that Blizzard is trying to tackle addons as of late. But if healers get treated the same way as DDs will, the gap between a “new player” and a “seasoned player” will be huge. Bigger than it is now.

So IMO its time that blizzard make a default healer UI similar to VohDoh. With by default “click on party frames” keybinds, and with a built-in WA that shows who has what buff (like hots and things like that).

3

I don’t get it. All casts from those mobs with the exception of the crawler are interruptible. That’s the mechanic. And the crawlers do dispellable DoTs.

Wouldn’t that trinket be completely absorbed the tank’s incoming damage? A 5m shield lasts about 2-3 seconds on a tank at high keys.

I have replaced HealBot with Click Casting that was introduced in DF and it seems like a suitable replacement. It really should show more HoTs than just three, oh well…

We… Have that… Go into your setting and type into search “Click”.

4

(A) Assuming you are a perfectly organized comp, with assigned kicks you would be right.

But what are we talking about here? The average “joe” healing keys in a pug. Or a premade doing +18s?

Fact of the matter is that not everyone has the skill to pull that off perfectly well. And by “not skilled enough” I dont mean +2 level of skill. Im talking about say… +15 level of skill.

If we were all capable of executing that flawlessly, we would all be doing +18s and +19s. But we arent.

So TLDR is: 1 mistake == 1-shot. Which is terribly punishing, especially because the unavoidable AoE is supposed to be the “challenge” in those Combo-Wombo situations. Not organizing a kick rotation…

(B) If you go to Arakara, and you do the route as it’s supposed to be in order to time it, you are pulling a total of 7 crawlers simultaneously. Who’s poison dot can stack.

It is incredibly punishing. Even if you have poison dispel.

Its a 5M shield on EVERYONE. And not just that. Its a 75% DR on EVERYONE. Until 5M damage is taken.

It works like this: Say you get hit by a 10M “bolt”. If you have this shield on you, you will only take 25% of that 10M in damage. Or 2.5M, which will be taken off the shield of 5M. So now, 5M shield drops to 2.5M shield. If you take another 10M bolt, the shield goes from 2.5M to 0 and it breaks.

That is PER person. Not just the tank.

You could yes. But its not “default”. You have to know these things exist. And the impact it has on your performance.

That is not “default”. That is a half-baked crummy, half working barebones replacement to what those addons do. And its hidden in the settings.

You have not tried Cell addon yet. That is the modern version of VohDo and Healbot. And comparing THAT to whatever garbage blizzard does is like comparing a 5 star hotel with garbage dump.

5

Shut the front door. At max item level you can instantly push out 27+ million shield which will also deal damage if not fully absorbed?!?
I thought it’s one absorb effect on the caster, that affects 4 additional players around them.

This is Hella broken, there’s no personal healing CD that is this powerful on 5 player.

6

It is OP as hell. Its literally 10 to 15% of my overall healing. That 1 trinket.

We are ALL Oracle Dpriest this season…

And it dosent do damage. It heals. But a max of 2M which is like 1 baseline riptide so nobody cares about that. Plus, you use it in specific big AoE moments. So the shield almost never expires.

The heal itself is like 0.5% of my overall healing. So inconsequential.

7

Here is the details of the overall healing on a Arakara 13:

https://ibb.co/VcWCYkQk

Its an absorb shield. The higher the key, the less % it will be. In lower keys that trinket can get up to top 1 of my healing.

And in a +10 some mechanics can literally be cheesed with it. Making people inmortal. Like the Arakara packs before 2nd boss. Which the spider casters + the big scarab doing AoE. Well scarab AoE + 2 un-kicked AoE bolts did not break that shield on a +10. People could simply ZugZug for 10s and they could ignore all mechanics.

8

They should remove the Haste Bonus on it, just leave the on use effect. Would still be Hella powerful.

9

Nah… I like being a Blue Disc Priest… :smiley: Im a Smurf Priest… :smiley:

10

Wich u dont need tbh. Except maybe cell but thats it.

They have this under mouse over macro’s and yes its the same as healbot and vuhdo.

11

Needing. And “improving performance by a large amount” are two different things.

Of course you dont need any addons in WoW. There is no addon that you “need”. What addons do (and in particular healer addons) is increase your HPS by 100% or more.

I tried those macros. And they are garbage.

The wow by default “mouse over macros” apply to ANYHTING. Not only to the party frame.

In other words. If I bind “Left-Click” to Riptide.

  • If I am in Donorgal. And I click on a toon on the screen because I want to inspect him. Instead of selecting him I will cast riptide on him.
  • Or, in combat. If I want to change the camera angle by click-dragging on the screen and I happen to click on someone (not just the nameplate, but anywhere in the outline of the toon) I will cast riptide on him instead.

The VohDoo and Cell Mouse-over-macros are conditional. If you bind Left-Click to Riptide, you will ONLY cast riptide of you click on the party frames. Nowhere else.

AND…

VohDoo and Cell show you buffs and other important things in the party frames directly. Something the wow default does not.

So yeah… you have some “equivalents” in wow. But they are FAR from being useful. They are garbage.

12

didnt read past “what about new players”

new players have litraly half of year to gear up to 717 once turboboost even hits (hero 8/8 which will be aviable then ) and abtain new suepr powerfull boots to clear +10s and AoTC .

new players or weaker players do not aim to clear +10s on week 1.

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