During my WoW career (since ‘04) I have consistently been drawn to DPS specs because I’ve found them most meaningful. In a world at war, I always felt the most significant thing I could be doing as a player is doing damage to other players, mobs, raid bosses and Gammon.
More and more I’ve found myself watching healers and admiring what they do and how they do it. So much so, I’m actually, for the first time in 20 years, considering playing something other than a DPS spec.
So I wanted to ask the healers; why? What is it that appealed and appeals to you about healing? Do you get a thrill from it? Is it the saving your allies, supporting the team or the thrill you get yourself?
There is doubtless more opportunity to deal damage in the world and in instanced content. If you don’t come across players out in the world, do you feel somewhat redundant? (In the sense that if I see a player struggling to take down a mob I can help pump DPS into that, but if they aren’t low on HP, are you resigned to just walking away and wishing you could be helpful?)
Basically, I’m asking for some inspiration and appeal to help see playing a healer, well, more appealing.
Instant queues, especially true for PvP since DPS solo shuffle queues can be extremely long.
I like having more control over what’s happening.
As a healer, I can compensate for my allies’ mistakes by playing correctly and saving them when they do something stupid, whereas if I’m playing a DPS and my team mate are bad, there’s very little I can do to prevent their deaths and I end up losing because of external factors outside of my control which I find frustrating.
I’ve been playing a mistweaver monk in Remix the last few days. Quite fun. Of course it’s not anything like healing in the actual real game, so I can’t speak about their quality, but it’s the one healer I’ve enjoyed playing over the years (I liked mistweaver during Legion as well and played it quite regularly).
It is just a complete different game. Instead of fighting the mobs, most of the time you are playing the puzzle of the partyframes how to fill them now, and planning for the future
That said; i am a complete noob on tank and dps. And it is very hard to feel engagement having to look at a dps meter. I have tried playing both 2 other roles in the previous 2 seasons. This season unfortunately the scaling of the dungeons is too hard for me to not heal.
For me initially it was for faster que times. I did not have many friends that played WoW when I started back up again, and I wasn’t really aware of Discord communities etc.
So for me, the game was a lot of times just que times and LFG… And when I have limited time to play after work etc. I simply didn’t want to sit and run around in circles in whatever the new main city was, until my que popped, group filled or I got accepted.
Would I play dps if I had the same “down time” ? Maybe not main it, but I sure would be playing more of it, trying different specs etc.
I spent hours in lfg in oribos as dps in shadowlands, it was only when I started healing that I found groups and I were suddenly in demand instead of being one of the dozens of dps searching for 1 healer for their arena. It has convenience if one wants to play more than wait. Ive played dps since vanil but it were SL lfg that made me try healing and I dont regret it but I do regret healing DF little cause shuffle which isnt really good for healers.
Its just smart if one wants to play whenever and as much as they want, you optimize the amount you get to play pretty much by being the one which is most in need.
Always wanted to be a support type player in games. Took me 4 years to get over the idea that I can’t play anything other than my trusty demon huntress(that is in content that challenges me at all. I’ve always had MANY alts.) and here we are. It’s quite satisfying, keeps my friends alive and well and I can throw some buffs around. What more could I ask for?
(Oh and I can compensate for any mistakes I make just like with my DH because healing)
Originally : To have shorter queues in general. I tried tanking, and I sucked at it. A LOT. So I tried healing instead. I started out in PvP healing, and then I abandoned PvP all together for reasons and did only PvE.
But then I found my internal vocation. I was a repressed healer when I was maining DD.
And now. What brings me the most to healing is the thrill.
There is nothing like doing a massive pull, people are almost dead, or 1 GCD from dying…
But they dont die. And we clear the pull, survive, and time the key.
On the flip-side. I hate to mess up. So far I have been taking this season chill. But in S3 I remember practicing the mage boss in +22 like 30 times to get the healing right for a +26/+27.
And as an added bonus, I get to DPS as well. And min-maxing people not dying and max-dps is really nice. Plus interrupts, affixes, ect…
But that brings me to my generalized disdain for 1-shots. I hate them because there is very little I can do. It removes the fun from M+.
I started with healing back in Lichking, on my holy pala.
Enjoyed helping the group, keeping them alive, the rush when it almost seemed to turn into a wipe but you managed to keep that from happening. I recall one time that because of some effect, 3/4 of the raid group suddenly died until it was just me and the tank left and the boss at 2%. Then the pressure was on, healing yourself and the tank and see the health drip down to 1% and finally down. A ress to everyone and we all cheered.
Though times changed and you get scolded if you don’t heal a DPS that keeps standing in the fire.
Now … I still enjoy being a healer, even if no one wants me around anymore, I still do my best to heal those who need it, even if its a random player I encounter somewhere in Azeroth.
Always seemed to like keeping team afloat. Same in sports preferred defending in football, etc. Probably stems from hating the show offs who boast about scoring a goal etc.
Goalies in hockey used to wear just beanie caps in goal, thats how I feel when I heal shuffles too but atleast my ques are fast. I think thats the biggest plus side of it.
I think playing a healer is only worth it in raids, dungeons, and PvP. The open world isn’t dangerous enough for there to be a need for healers.
Short M+ queue times is the biggest benefit of playing a healer. You can also get into PuG raids easily as a healer.
Healing can be very exciting in M+. At first it might feel really stressful as you’te getting used to it. There’s a strange phenomenon where healing lower M+ keys is often more stressful than healing higher keys because you’ll play with less skilled players who will make more mistakes, which you will be encouraged to fix.
