The Sky Has Fallen

Not much in World of
Warcraft survived Deathwing’s reemergence unscathed. While
the visible changes may have been the most prominent, the changes to
game mechanics may have been more significant.  Every player
in the game has had to make modifications to their playstyle to cope
with these changes, but none have more challenges than the
healers.  In fact, early on in the expansion many formerly
respected and powerful healers gave up the calling and switched to less
stressful DPS roles.



What happened to make these once benevolent menders turn tail and run?
Simply put; the game got harder – much, much harder.  Mana
pools were draining at an alarming rate and party members began hitting
the floor in epidemic like numbers.  Early heroic dungeon runs
were often messy affairs that hammered home the point – WoW had changed
and players needed to change with it.

Doing it Wrong

One of the most frustrating aspects to the new changes stems from
having more than one contributing factor present.  In fact,
most issues can be traced down to three root causes, the first of which
is overhealing.  Healing in WotLK devolved into a race to the
top – meaning healers constantly spammed to keep health meters at 100%
with little regard for mana consumption or target prioritization
(outside of tanks). The new mechanics dictate that we now must pay
attention to exactly what we are casting, who we cast it on and how
often we cast.  If you still play with a WoW 3.0 style, you
will find it impossible to heal as you will have no mana to do it.



The second factor comes in the form of gear. While the game has done an
admirable job of trying to gate content by requiring a minimum ilvl of
gear to enter – the system can still be gamed as it uses a cumulative
calculation of all the gear in your bag, not necessarily what you are
wearing. This is the perfect reason that a mod like href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/playerscore">PlayerScore
can still be highly useful as it offers a more in depth analysis of
gear as well as a way to rate the person wearing it.  Proper
gems, reforging and enchants can help elevate marginal gear to an
acceptable level.



The third and probably the most consistent factor is group composition
and ability. In some pulls and situations no amount of gear or mana
efficiency will be safe, and this is where group smarts come into play.
A group that is skilled in crowd control, target prioritization and
focuses their DPS properly can help make their healer shine. 
Health bars are no longer an asset that needs to be kept at their
highest levels at all time, but more of an expendable resource that
needs to be managed effectively.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Recent posts by WoW developers and system designers, such as the one
released by Ghostcrawler last week, have given hope to those that
aren’t mega fans of the current state of things - but have also
reiterated that the core concept of higher difficulty is here to
stay.  That affirmation coupled with recent changes on the PTR
has shown that relief is on the way, but most players have already
found instance runs becoming easier and PUGs are now more
manageable.  Better gear, familiarity and adaptation to the
new style have been the core reasons for the higher success
rates.  Hopefully the changes coming soon will help even out
the healing classes as there still exists a steep drop off between the
best and worse classes.



Paladins and holy priests are leading the way in healing proficiency
currently with discipline priests just under them. 
Restoration druids and shaman are struggling the most with druids
seeming to be the most gear dependent of all the healers.  href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=56132">Patch
4.0.6 may fix druids, but it may be a while before shaman are
finally tuned correctly – hopefully posts like href="http://www.paragon.fi/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9485#p9485">
this one from top guild Paragon will help expedite the
process.



Triage style healing is here for the long haul and our ability to adapt
will be crucial in how well we perform in each new tier of content.
Eventually healing will level out as players continue to amass gear,
gain familiarity in the various encounters and master the new
mechanics. Are you a healer? Have any tips or best practices for
dealing with the new changes and challenges? Let us know in our forums.