It caught me by surprise. This level 84. I queued in the LFD as usual and started to heal the tank. What had already happened at level 82 and 83 was now very apparent: I was healing for the same amount, but at a very significant higher mana cost. In addition, the tanks had about twice as much health and played in a way that they needed it.
In my three runs yesterday evening, 8 (eight) tanks left before the end of the dungeon. Not because I couldn't keep them alive – I barely could. But because I couldn't keep the DDs alive and because I had to drink for about 45 seconds after each pull.
Now, in one way I love this. Finally the dungeons are no mindless zerging anymore. At least not for me. The fact that the DDs suck up so much damage is, of course, a result of them never avoiding any dmg if it costs dps. And who could blame them? Add a hundred itemlevels to my equip and I would probably urge the DDs to just do maximum damage – just like I did the last 83 levels.
I might try to record some 'good examples' later, but right now take this as an example: For about 81 levels my AoE heal would heal about 30-50% of a player's health. It was cheap enough to chain-cast it through most encounters – if I had wanted or needed to do that. Right now it heals for about 5% of a player's health and is too expensive to use if any overheal is involved. The same is true for most of my spells. They completely change their character at level 82-85.
On my third run I was kicked from the group – without an explanation, but I can guess why. If I weren't an experienced player, but a newbie, I am pretty sure that I would hate this game as a healer right now. The problem is not that it is (very) challenging: the problem is that everybody pities you – or is even annoyed by your equipment (by your presence). What is very challenging for you is not accepted as a challenge by them. It shouldn't be hard for you, but it is. If you use your cooldowns and most mana efficient spells in the best way possible - which is not easy - everybody seems to think that you are at least not letting them die.
This creates a very awkward feeling. Healers want to be liked. They want to be helpful. They don't want to be a burden. That is the mindset of a healer. To confront a healer with this level 84 is not very smart from a game design point of view.
Surely you mean "levels 10-83 were underwhelming"? Finally level 84 brought you back to the sort of challenge that you relished in the early levels. And yet, here you are complaining that you can't faceroll it !
ReplyDelete"What is very challenging for you is not accepted as a challenge by them". No surprise, since you and a thousand healers like you spent the previous 83 levels telling them to "GOGOGO", and never mind the consequences.
By your own admittance "The fact that the DDs suck up so much damage is, of course, a result of them never avoiding any dmg if it costs dps. And who could blame them? Add a hundred itemlevels to my equip and I would probably urge the DDs to just do maximum damage – just like I did the last 83 levels." Really, you only have yourself to blame, by encouraging this attitude, urging DDs to ignore incoming damage.
"To confront a healer with this level 84 is not very smart from a game design point of view"
The mistake was in the previous 73 or so levels, not with level 84.
The mistake was in the previous 73 or so levels, not with level 84.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Dàchéng.
But please recognise that if I hadn't told the tank to gogogo in earlier levels, I'd never made it to level 83. It's not my fault. Rarely is anything a player's fault, really. It's Blizzard's fault that the only way to enjoy early-level instances as a healer is to encourage the tank to chain-pull (and do it yourself if he doesn't, because you can tank just as well).
At the end of the day the neglected leveling game turns WoW into an unpolished mass right now. If any other MMO released like that they would go f2p within a month.
Caveat: My main characters in WoW have always been healers. It's what I like to do in that game. This obviously biases my perspective.
ReplyDeleteIMO, the problem is that, between the easy-mode leveling and the easy-mode (at least for semi-geared players) of Wrath heroics, tanks and damage dealers have been encouraged to have a "go go go!" mindset. In Cataclysm, Blizzard decided they wanted to make healing "more fun" by making healing spells cost more to heal less, but didn't properly manage the expectations/mindset of the rest of the group members. This places a burden on a subset of players, which can suck the fun right out of the game for them.
It isn't Nils per se who is encouraging the "The fact that the DDs suck up so much damage is, of course, a result of them never avoiding any dmg if it costs dps. And who could blame them? Add a hundred itemlevels to my equip and I would probably urge the DDs to just do maximum damage – just like I did the last 83 levels." attitude. It's the game design that does so. It's the "Holy Trinity" that encourages it. The design sets up the expectation that the healer is the only one who has to worry about the groups health, so many DPS players feel entitled to blame the healer if they get killed. Or they feel entitled to blame the tank, because the design also sets up the expectation that the tank is the only one who needs to worry about threat.
@Nils, I'm very surprised at your "shock". I did the same with my alt: a resto shaman: apart from getting some more gear at lvl 80-81 in Hyjal, I did all the rest of the leveling in LFD. I did some quests while waiting for a group, which, as an healer, means not many of them :)
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a step up in mana management, and it becomes even more evident in heroic dungeons (in there you can find overgeared people, which makes things easier). But I never suffered that much....
It's probably due to the fact that I did some healing in the past with the shaman (including a couple of raids while seriously undergeared), so some "old habits" kicked in. I don't remember any particular abuse of my maxxed professions or the AH (all stuff gets replaced at 85...), but my shaman was full heirloom equipped (at the same time, it's just 2 pieces....).
The 80-85 exping takes quite some time even if running dungeons (levels 83 and 84 in particular), so you have the time to get some good gear upgrades. Maybe you had competition from the mages, as a shaman any int/mail item is automatically mine.
The other point is that everyone is more or less at the same ilvl during that phase, since noone bothers with enchants or crafts which will be dumped in a couple of levels... I don't think any other priest would do much better.
Did you do any communication (like "dps be careful not to pull aggro, I don't have enough mana to heal much more than the tank")? And, more importantly, are you using the right spells? The large HP pools of tanks give you time, so you must unlearn the flash-heal spamming, which will leave you OOM immediately.
I don't know for the priest, but the shaman has always been combo-oriented, with spells giving you buffs for other spells, so using the right sequence is important for mana management.
Hehe, Kring. I forced mysyelf to play mana-efficiently from the beginning. I almost banned flash heals. I have recalculated all the heal/mana coefficients after the first dungeon and if anything I lack at execution.
ReplyDeleteI do have pretty good equipment, by the way. I guess a major part of my problem is the class. If I rememeber correctly from earlier this year, priests had the most trouble with the mana management change and paladin were like "What, mana?".
Anyway, I think I'll force myself through a frapsed LFD now, so you can judge for yourself :)
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ReplyDeleteThat is interesting. I ran across the exact same deal (overly inflated mana costs for spells) at lv83, for my druid, shammy, and priest.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like blizzard changed the level to 84?
On a side note, I have a MACRO I started using since I start healing dungeons. It basically says, If you choose not to avoid the bads (AKA griefing), I will not waste my mana on you.
I ran into a similiar problem MONTHS ago shortly after launch. I started a Worgen Druid who I wanted to tank with. Everything was more or less fine until Heroics came into play. I could tank anything up to level 85 with out issue.
ReplyDeleteThen I try a heroic. With all the best in slot items from regular instances, runes/enchants, and some stellar BoE purchased items I still couldn't tank to the groups satisfaction in Heroics. I had to queue as a melee DPS druid in order to get drops to tank. By the time I had enough drops to tank to the rest of the groups liking I didn't need most the drops their anymore. It was time to move on to raids... but I didn't have good enough gear to raid tank. I decided to quit at that point.
I am somewhat surprised by this discussion. Oh yeah, I agree with everything you said (to an extent, it's been ages since I've been there, so I don't remember exactly how bad that felt).
ReplyDeleteI am, however, more than a little surprised by how noone mentioned how backward this whole design by Blizzard is. Level up so you get weaker! I was amazed by absurdity of this back when Cata was released.
Oh, and btw, I am all for challenge. However it shouldn't be done by nerfing your character as you level up.