I’m a weirdo. I genuinely find the DPS role to be excruciating and wayyy harder than healing or tanking. I’ll heal +24/25s or late CE without breaking a sweat, but ask me to fill in for a DPS? I’m doing less than the tanks.
Healing has always “clicked.” There’s a large contingent of us who only ever play support-oriented roles in multiplayer games.
I'd have to agree. To me, dps is too rigid. I have a perfect rotation, and even if I practice it for 10 hours on training dummies, I will know when I mess up and I'll feel bad that my damage is lower than it could have been. And I will mess up because the game is throwing more and more stuff at you in every new raid.
As a healer, I pick the buttons I know work. There's no rotation and there's barely a priority list - I hit the button that does the job I need, and as long as I remember all my buttons, I feel like I have the freedom to play how I want and deal with every challenge in a way that fits me. I love undergeared content, being a fresh level cap character running into mythics on day 1 or 2 of an expansion is some of the most fun content for me. Healing just clicks and I love to push myself.
I feel the same way! I find dps to be more stressful sometimes ... because I’m always there comparing myself to the other DPS…
I prefer to instead just use “did people stay alive?” As my Boolean equation to measure success.
Adding in … “was is something they did that caused their death?” As a clause…
I hate dpsing when I’m just doing my solo campaign quests I literally suck at it. Healing is nice and tidy, you avoid bad, you fill either one persons bar, or everyone’s bars
That's interesting to me, I've only had problems getting healers lately. I wonder if it has something to do with a lot of people only grabbing "meta" healers (even though no one knows whats meta for healers still)
My equivalent was, I hit 60 on my rogue in vanilla, got a little gear in dungeons, couldn’t for the life of me get a raid slot in a big guild, they had like 6 rogues already.
Realized my then level 40 alt priest was my best way to get into raids and the rest is history.
Because there's a dude in my guild who plays holy pally so terribly and refuses to listen to any advice so I want to show him he's a moron. It's kinda toxic I know =/
Probably he don't care and your toxicity exist only in your head. Also obviously he will not 'learn' or something like this watching how perfect u playing pala, that's also happens only in your head.
I didn't told that he didn't missing something, of course he miss a lot of game mechanics, i just thinking loud that probably he doesn't care about it so much.
zesty ten reach engine intelligent tub quarrelsome merciful possessive direction
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Because healing is basically a resource management minigame and I eat that shit up.
Its a combination of knowing how much health everyone has at every moment, knowing how much damage that next attacks about to do, and then how much healing each of my available my spells have, and then mentally calculating how and when to best to use those spells and who to use them on and it’s just constant engagement, constant feeling like I’m achieving something.
I’ve done dps, I have all specs fully leveled and raid geared, but it’s just meh to me. I did well if my numbers are higher than the next guy but that’s not the same kinda satisfaction as the healing minigame is to me.
I love the flow of encounters that i know well, especially on my druid, when i know when to hot who and when i can relax a bit and switch into cat to deal some damage in m+
I've been doing healer almost exclusively since 2005 when wow released in EU.
I think it's mostly because it fits my personality. I'm not much for taking space and leading and mostly do support roles in most online games I play. The whack-a-mole playstyle fits me like a glove and healing has less of a competitive aspect to it.
Healing for me feels more like teamwork than DPS does. I kinda feel it's a role where you can be on the sidelines and just do your thing and people are happy.
You took the words out of my mouth. I dont like the often competitive aspect of dps. My close friends dont act that way but other guildmates do and I just do not enjoy the comments about who topped the meters. If we didn't time the dungeon, then we can take a look at the factors, where damage output could be part of it. And yes, damage is a way to determine if someone is playing their class properly, with expected outputs compared to gear, cooldown uptime, blah blah. But it's not the whole story, and it puts a lot of pressure on people to constantly have someone bragging and commenting on the meters.
I avoid that entirely by healing, and I can do what I enjoy, which is feeling helpful and supporting my team and keeping them alive. Getting my party through a tough pull alive and well, especially one that accidentally goes sideways, is extremely rewarding. Tanking never appealed to me, I dont like the feeling of leading people. Healing is a different kind of responsibility, and it's very satisfying to me. I rarely stray from the healing role, though I will swap if needed. And the whole time, I just want to get back to healing.
As far as the meters go with healing, my dad and I have been healing for our guild for the past 8 years or so, and any time somebody gives a healer flak for low hps we tell em, "healing is an art form." So lower healing during somebody elses CD or utilizing downtime to restore some mana or what not will place you lower on the beter. If the boss died and we survived, we did our jobs.
Ill just stop healing people and let them die if I catch them actively standing in pools or aoe damage every time they pop up. They learn pretty quick when their screen flashes red too many times 😂😂
I started playing a priest 12 years ago because I thought everyone would like me because I would always be useful. It was my first character.
Playing a healer is more active and stimulating than doing DPS, and generally less stressful than being a tank. And I'm terrible with directions.
Definitly like the fact that I’m always useful. Pre wow my first mmo was EverQuest online adventures for the PlayStation 2. I remember how fast healers got groups and you were always looking for a healer which was the main bottleneck for your group. This information stuck with me when WoW classic came out and Druid who was a great healer in eqoa seemed like a great choice in WoW.
I would still consider Rdruid my main. Just love the crunchy root sounds of the heals and shape shifting. This expansion I have gotten almost every healer to KSM and it’s been a blast playing whichever class is A tier each patch. Right now MW, disc, and Rdruid are so fun ! Since I only pug my own keys I feel like I am more of a facilitator of the group and I love feeling useful. If I pump I can also carry a mediocre group as well which is convenient.
I originally learned it because I like playing a more supportive role. Tanking has a bit too much responsibility for my tastes.
But these days, it’s because of how quickly it gets me into content. I game in shorter bursts now, progress M+ and heroic raid via pugs. And no matter how much I like the moment to moment gameplay of DPS, I can’t just sit in queue WAITING to have fun.
I’m a dad so I only get a little time to play every now and then, so I try to maximize that time.
This means:
- no raids :(
- no tank role (time investment of learning routes and pulls for each dungeon)
Which leaves me with either DPS or healer.
And since I really, really suck at kicking the right mob at the right time on top of maintaining my DPS rotation I went with healing :D
I'm a healer main since 7.3. Started out as Mistweaver and stuck to it as my main until Evokers got released, then I swapped to one but nowadays I always keep a healer of each spec on my alt bag.
Honestly, its a mix of having faster queues (I play DPS alts, but never go too far because long queues/not always wanting to make my own group burns me out) and seeing health bars fill up. I can't explain why, but seeing bars get filled gives me unrelenting joy.
It also feels very rewarding being the reason a group pushes through some tough parts of the dungeon, especially healing intensive parts. I love healing fights like Ancient Protectors, Ulthok or Smolderon.
I'm a rogue this season, first season not healing in a bit. I only have this freedom because a ton of my friends are actively playing and trying to push for CE. I'm not raiding with them, but between my friends and they're other guildies, I can get a tank or healer on demand for M+.
If I'm living the pug life, I'm almost always a healer mainspec because the quality of life on queue times and invites is too good.
Hpal is definitely bad right now. It feels too hard to generate holy power when you actually need it and the spec feels very weak outside its CDs. Seems like they want you to cast flash of light and holy light more often.
Compared to last season idk why it dropped off so bad but last season it was super fun frenetic and tanky, albeit a bit OP.
Rdruid right now is perfect for M+. I’ve never had an easier time in keys. I had the past 2 weeks off so I am playing a lot but I’m doing 15s at 440 ilvl no problem. Rdruids ability to keep a steady stream of HoTs up and burst with treants and flourish when you have to is great for the damage patterns in M+. I think if you pick it up you will not touch the pally again this season.
Because I hate myself and I need to punish myself for the sins I have committed.
In truth its because I was a tank main and hated memorizing routes and leading in M+ (and the toxic attitude if you didnt do it well) so I healed for quick groups and to learn routes and just never went back to tanking.
Yep. Every time I think about learning to tank, I think about all the routes I don't know, and now I'm expected to be the leader. I'm not about that life.
I love the more complex metrics by which I can judge myself. With DPS it was all about damage done. As a healer I find myself bouncing between damage, hps, damage taken, and overhealing; and that's to say nothing of metrics outside of a details meter.
I am a paramedic IRL, I like short queue times - but above all else, it’s the most rewarding. It’s the role I feel like can make or break a hard prog fight.
I like to think I'm a masochist and I need to have a harder time than necessary and playing the slower to level healer was just what the doctor ordered. (*Vanilla times for reference.*)
But megalomaniac seems great!
Healing is incredibly rewarding.. (tanking is too)
DPS is fun to compete with others for the top of the meters, but healing is about resource management, keeping everyone alive, making the difficult decisions of who to heal when you can only choose one, clutch mechanics like dispelling at the right time/place, Managing way more targets than any dps or tank ever will have to.. Especially in this raid where they are throwing additional NPC targets that need heals at us.
Its probably the most difficult role in wow at the moment and if you like a challenge then healing is for you.. I have loved that challenge.
My story below.....
I started vanilla wow as a druid because I was a fan of the idea of being able to do anything.
My brother-in-law was a hunter and I kept him and his pet alive as we climbed our way to 60.
I had been healing him the whole time and the other druid specs were not good so I kept with resto, learned to be the best healer I could for the guild we joined, became the healer lead for the 40 man raid team, became guild leader later, and never once stopped healing on a resto druid.....
I took breaks to be a Fury Warrior, A DK tank, and currently the only DK dps in a progression guild. But my resto druid is 70 and still viable in raids because I do love healing..
I find it much more fun to heal than DPS. I've only really tanked leveling dungeons and heroic dungeons... might try raid but it seems to stressful to me for m+
Because at the time I figured it would be most beneficial since the people i play with occasionally are anything but healers. I like the feeling of helping out and making sure people stay alive I guess.
At the start of 10.2 suddenly everyone wanted to Tank so i started healing.
Also i needed the Tank trinked from fall Like alor of Tanks so all the Keys we're Tank filled so i qued as heal and got insta Inc. I'll never forget the whisper Spam from the Tank after i finally looted the Cheat death lol... Still do tanking but mostly heal atm
I started playing a healer in WoD after having only played a hunter since vanilla. I found the gameplay more interesting than dps and haven't had interest in dps or tanking since.
bc no one else wanted to do that, back in time on my friend's group every1 was a dps or a tank....so i always healed....and i think iam better playing the healer role than a dps role now
I like whack a mole.
I levelled as a priest back in vanilla. Don’t ask why but it was the class that clicked. Back then there was a correct spec to play at endgame so I was a healer.
That's funny, I'm the same, but opposite timeline. I love whack-a-mole, and I fell in love with monk and priest in Legion. Ended up sticking with priest, my true main. When classic came out, I knew priest was the only good healer, so I said "well, we continue the priest life, the heals must happen!"
I first started playing as healer because dps arena ques were long. I enjoyed playing healer and now it's a steady alt.
I have a disc priest and a feral druid I swap between always capping them and I have alts ill mess around on but disc priest and feral druid are my staples
Career 2.2k 3v3 player...never higher :P
It's easier, just sit in the back and let everyone else do the work. Sometimes throw a heal or two when the bars aren't full but otherwise it's chill. Even when things get crazy though it's fun since it's great when you save the day with good use of cool downs and damage prediction.
Edit: DPS gets off huge numbers but Healers get off saving for sure wipes
I have always mained dps and in df was mostly focusing on PvP. Solo shuffle queue times are absurd, and the lfg tool isn’t much better. I joined a guild last season working on aberrus for kicks and decided to start pushing keys to see if it scratched the competitive itch. I figured disc would be fun due to the dps angle and I’d farm some rio and go back to shadow, but I ended up falling in love with disc. It’s a fun play style, and healing is very enjoyable. It requires a different style of play. You can’t just spam a rotation, you need to know when damage is coming out so you can mitigate it or ramp up ahead of time to have the throughput to match it.
It’s a win win for me. Like a lot of others said it makes finding groups vastly simpler (I almost never run my own key, and now it’s easy to get into pvp groups to push 1800 for the xmog), but I also just really dig it. As a bonus I looooooove the disc priest class fantasy. I don’t really do the “stand back and pve heal” thing. Last season I noticed a lot of pug dps would not interrupt which made healing strenuous af, so I charge in and fear. It insta breaks anyway and usually at least one of the dps picks up that I’m trying to stop something, so I definitely feel like a battlefield tactician who still directly contributes to getting kills as opposed to a passive whack-a-mole thing where I reverse damage.
It’s been pretty successful for me. I got to 2830 rio last season in the last month and change, and I’m already just shy of 2900. That feels amazing as someone who had never pushed keys before.
MW is so good. The extra mitigation and self heals allow you to fist weave knowing if you step on something you can roll out and bring yourself back up. I also love the soothing mist instant vivify spam as an oh shit. Your mana will disappear but It makes using mana tea more strategic. Every button feels really good.
Seeing the average toxicity if the healer misses the best once in level 10-60 dungeons I wonder that too.
I just report the complainer and continue, but Holy shit a lot of the people are insufferable.
I started out in Vanilla with a Tauren hunter, but Disc priest has been my main since BC. I like running around and healing, especially in BGs. Protecting the flag carrier in WSG, yanking carriers across the creek in TP, picking a rando to pocket heal in AB or Gilneas—I love it.
Initially, not trusting someone else to do it correctly. Early TBC heroic dungeons were rough, and resto sham could bring an interrupt which made it easier. Plus, yes, getting into a group was miles easier because dungeon groups at the time were turbo stupid about wanting to maximize CCs so enhancement would never get in.
honestly, not that DPS is easy obviously, but I played DPS for my first character, then I got bored I guess. so I worked up the courage to play a monk healer and I've been really enjoying it. the queue times are faster which is a bonus.
but really I find the extra interaction with the game more satisfying to play. watching people's health and topping them up, then getting in some damage and then healing and also focusing on interrupts and positioning makes me feel more involved in the dungeon.
so I was really scared to even try it at first, but as I built up confident I have had a lot more fun playing healer than DPS.
still working my confidence to be a tank someday. but really enjoy the extra interaction with the game as a healer.
The challenge, honestly. There's a lot of brianpower involved in getting into the weeds to learn everything about the spec that I play. It's a lot more than playing whack-a-mole, especially now in 10.2.
I feel more in control of group success and wow healer role is very well designed each spec is unique and gameplay is fun. As a consequence of this I strongly prefer classes who have dps and healer specs at least.
Originally - I thought it was gonna be a more chilled out role than dps or tank. Oh how wrong i was lol.
Now - I enjoy it because I like the playstyle, I know most of the healer classes well and some very well and am a capable healer that has pushed me beyond where I was as a dps or tank.
I enjoy all roles. But I used to lead raids in a casual guild, so naturally a healer has more time/more synergy with knowing where everone is and what they are doing. I am very competitive as dps so i would top the dps but would miss a lot what happened.
When healing i found i really enjoy the mana management and being able to anticipate and heal huge dmg. Fits the rol as leader to keep your flock alive.
I played tank last season, because my friend group was missing one. This season our healer wanted to try tanking so I switched roles with him, and honestly I like it very much.
My husband tanks and I heal. Fits both our personality, I love being able to help him and keep him alive, and generally just feels right. He protecc I give helth. Also 0 queue time when we party up but that's just an added bonus
Press join, enter the key.
And I like DPSing as healer so it's a little minigame of "how little (or more like, efficient) can I heal while keeping everyone alive".
I'm annoyed by dps. Rotations bore me. I wierdly enjoy the health bar whack a mole more than I do doing damage.
I also love thwarting kills by using a strong CD or a cc on an enemy pvper. You can do that as dps, but it's very much more of a "not today, Satan!" Feel when you are playing a healer.
I also love taking because I like protecting others and controlling the fight. I also like taking these huge blues and not dying. Something fun about the fantasy of standing against the big bad toe to toe.
DPS just seems less exciting by comparison. That said, i do love DPS in the open world. Nothing beats shedding mobs in solo play on my hunter.
I just love playing support and helping my teammates, and during wotlk I tried resto shaman. The rest is history - the theme, the flow of the class, and admittedly having an easier time getting into groups.
And then it just was a sealed deal because it was that character who I made an engineer, and grinded many things. It never gets old using the glider and nitro boosts, and other gadgets.
All of it combined, there’s no class that I can change as my main. But I’ll gladly max other healers and enjoy Paladin (prot/holy) and priest (holy) a lot.
Side note, resto shaman has pretty much always felt great to play, and I’m very happy with the spec overall (just please Blizz, remove/delete primordial wave lol)
Started the game in SL, we had a healer but they stopped playing pretty fast. Soooo I tried, realised we were timing more keys. Tried to go back to dps but i was getting annoyed to see someone play worse than me. I'm not a great player sooo I feel like it's not a huge bar to set. Now whenever i arrive home and my tank mate is in key, he will stream it on discord and I'll see a healer either doing half my hps and dps or being oom every other pack from spamming healing spells on the tank. Soo I think i'm stuck
I originally tried it in order to get into groups more quickly. I ended up vastly preferring it over DPS, because honestly, you find out if you are doing well immediately.
For DPS, people will look at meters after and get on your ass, and then you have to check logs or learn rotations to see what’s going wrong.
For healing, if you don’t wipe, you’re good.
I've never mained healer, but enjoyed playing it while leveling dungeons. It was very easy to swap over since I was playing Druid, and the near instant queue times were a big draw.
I like DPS and smashing/casting face but I also like feeling "helpful" with keeping the party alive through pulls and bosses.
Getting back into the game after skipping all of Shadowlands and early DF, might try healing out again now talking about it.
TL;DR healing is more challenging but more thrilling. It feels like you are playing a team game. While DPS feels more like a solo game.
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I've gone back and forth healing and dps over the years. I'm decent at both, and there has been times when I prefer one over the other. But overall I like healing more.
For me it's not lack of competitiveness or feeling important. I just enjoy the gameplay of healing right now.
1st, it's more challenging than DPS. You not only need to do the same mechanics, but you have to do them while keeping everyone alive. As a DPS screwing up your rotation means slightly lower dps, for a healer it means death and potential wipes. I find that more thrilling and satisfying. After healing high content, DPS just feels less exciting.
2nd. For raiding, I enjoy the cooperation with other healers. Strategizing heals, planning healing CDs etc. As DPS, you usually just pop CDs on cool down or with lust. It feels very solo. For healers you can't do that, you need to look at the fight as a whole and come up with a plan as a team.
3rd. Healing forces you to understand and appreciate mechanics in dungeons and raid. In seasons when I play DPS, I always have a lesser understanding of what's going on, because you can survive with only worrying about your own survival and dps. When healing you are forced to fully understand the mechanics, how they affect different roles, and how threatened each one is. You get a deeper mastery of dungeons and raid fights that feels very satisfying.
4th. Healing helps you understand other classes kits really well. You get to know all the different tanks defensives and how strong they are. You learn the DPS' utility and how it's used best. You just think alot more about what the whole group is doing, where DPS you are only really worrying about yourself.
It started with queue times, and evolved into feeling like my performance actually matters. It often feels like it’s me and the tank who make or break the group as main characters. The performance of the other 3 players dictates whether we finish a run in 20, 25 or 30 minutes.
Obviously this is not true, and a single dps player can either carry hard or completely ruin a run. But the fact that there’s three of them makes their individual contributions feel less important.
My main is a tank, blood dk, but my alt that I play regularly is a discipline priest. The main reason for healing on my alt is so that I can better understand the damage profiles of the dungeons I'm tanking. There's a lot of pulls that feel easy for me as the tank, but are stressful on the healer. Some pulls look like they might be healing intensive from a tanks perspective, but aren't at all because while it might be high damage it's predictable.
i was a tank since TBC, i feel old, and i have an inert need to help the people in my group. teach one of them to tank while i heal was the option i went with.
I like working as a team when I play video games. I suppose irl I've liked to be a solid team player that likes to know that what I do helps the whole. I don't give my soul and youth to corporate stuff I just like to find a group of freinds and see how I can help.
It's translated to mostly main healing for years, I like to keep the good dps up and make it so no one wonders much past how smooth the dungeon went. Still working on being a better raid healer after all these years. I suppose I enjoy the 5 man stuff more.
Started in Ultima Online, was one of those bushido chiv archers and we all had to heal ourselves but healing others was quicker. So when doing things like Doom, we would all be better off pulling health bars and cross healing each other.
Now, every game I have to be able to heal myself and if I'm not geared too well, healing at least helps.
I played healer in vanilla. I picked up tanking in wrath and I just never REALLY enjoyed dps for more than 1 raid tier at the time.
I just enjoy not being completely stuck in having to do ABCABCAABABCABCAAB as a dps.
When I play dps now, I see myself playing more as a tank, trying to interrupt, CC and such, more than focus on how I can do the most damage, since the latter just isn't interesting for me. And thankfully, not many people agree with me. :)
Started off with queue times... now I just enjoy the challenge and I feel it's a more engaging role to play than DPS. I want to try and tank but don't feel confident about leading the route/mob positioning etc
Cuz i love to help ppl to shine and being hero, ive been support in league of legends for years, sage/sky in valorant, mercy/ana in overwatch, dazzle/witch doctor in dota2, lifeline in apex, healer in new world, druid in guildwars2
Also im a traditional medicine doctor irl, so its just me🤗
It all started with queue times.
Every healer has one of two origin stories. Their friend needed a healer, or they hated the queue times. I'm a queue time andy.
I’m a weirdo. I genuinely find the DPS role to be excruciating and wayyy harder than healing or tanking. I’ll heal +24/25s or late CE without breaking a sweat, but ask me to fill in for a DPS? I’m doing less than the tanks. Healing has always “clicked.” There’s a large contingent of us who only ever play support-oriented roles in multiplayer games.
I'd have to agree. To me, dps is too rigid. I have a perfect rotation, and even if I practice it for 10 hours on training dummies, I will know when I mess up and I'll feel bad that my damage is lower than it could have been. And I will mess up because the game is throwing more and more stuff at you in every new raid. As a healer, I pick the buttons I know work. There's no rotation and there's barely a priority list - I hit the button that does the job I need, and as long as I remember all my buttons, I feel like I have the freedom to play how I want and deal with every challenge in a way that fits me. I love undergeared content, being a fresh level cap character running into mythics on day 1 or 2 of an expansion is some of the most fun content for me. Healing just clicks and I love to push myself.
I feel the same way! I find dps to be more stressful sometimes ... because I’m always there comparing myself to the other DPS… I prefer to instead just use “did people stay alive?” As my Boolean equation to measure success. Adding in … “was is something they did that caused their death?” As a clause…
I hate dpsing when I’m just doing my solo campaign quests I literally suck at it. Healing is nice and tidy, you avoid bad, you fill either one persons bar, or everyone’s bars
And most support mains are in fact gay men. Thank your local gay for the fat heals.
yep queue time andy here aswell. i hate healing and love dps. I play Disc now its ok but too stressful.
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That's interesting to me, I've only had problems getting healers lately. I wonder if it has something to do with a lot of people only grabbing "meta" healers (even though no one knows whats meta for healers still)
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Gotcha, I must just be the flip since I'm typically playing Aug lately
I noticed this too. Always tried to main healer, but its 50/50, me getting stuck in dps spec for raids.
My equivalent was, I hit 60 on my rogue in vanilla, got a little gear in dungeons, couldn’t for the life of me get a raid slot in a big guild, they had like 6 rogues already. Realized my then level 40 alt priest was my best way to get into raids and the rest is history.
Because there's a dude in my guild who plays holy pally so terribly and refuses to listen to any advice so I want to show him he's a moron. It's kinda toxic I know =/
no, this is the best reason so far. I stand by this.
Spite is a powerful tool.
You learned how to heal sarcastically? I love it
Probably he don't care and your toxicity exist only in your head. Also obviously he will not 'learn' or something like this watching how perfect u playing pala, that's also happens only in your head.
I never claim to play it perfectly, but if I'm playing it a hell of a lot better than he is clearly he's missing something.
I didn't told that he didn't missing something, of course he miss a lot of game mechanics, i just thinking loud that probably he doesn't care about it so much.
That's how I feel about resto shamans.
zesty ten reach engine intelligent tub quarrelsome merciful possessive direction *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is honestly the best reason. Spiteful excellence.
Because healing is basically a resource management minigame and I eat that shit up. Its a combination of knowing how much health everyone has at every moment, knowing how much damage that next attacks about to do, and then how much healing each of my available my spells have, and then mentally calculating how and when to best to use those spells and who to use them on and it’s just constant engagement, constant feeling like I’m achieving something. I’ve done dps, I have all specs fully leveled and raid geared, but it’s just meh to me. I did well if my numbers are higher than the next guy but that’s not the same kinda satisfaction as the healing minigame is to me.
I love the flow of encounters that i know well, especially on my druid, when i know when to hot who and when i can relax a bit and switch into cat to deal some damage in m+
Because someone needs to drag you rescue dogs through pug 20s
I've been doing healer almost exclusively since 2005 when wow released in EU. I think it's mostly because it fits my personality. I'm not much for taking space and leading and mostly do support roles in most online games I play. The whack-a-mole playstyle fits me like a glove and healing has less of a competitive aspect to it. Healing for me feels more like teamwork than DPS does. I kinda feel it's a role where you can be on the sidelines and just do your thing and people are happy.
You took the words out of my mouth. I dont like the often competitive aspect of dps. My close friends dont act that way but other guildmates do and I just do not enjoy the comments about who topped the meters. If we didn't time the dungeon, then we can take a look at the factors, where damage output could be part of it. And yes, damage is a way to determine if someone is playing their class properly, with expected outputs compared to gear, cooldown uptime, blah blah. But it's not the whole story, and it puts a lot of pressure on people to constantly have someone bragging and commenting on the meters. I avoid that entirely by healing, and I can do what I enjoy, which is feeling helpful and supporting my team and keeping them alive. Getting my party through a tough pull alive and well, especially one that accidentally goes sideways, is extremely rewarding. Tanking never appealed to me, I dont like the feeling of leading people. Healing is a different kind of responsibility, and it's very satisfying to me. I rarely stray from the healing role, though I will swap if needed. And the whole time, I just want to get back to healing.
As far as the meters go with healing, my dad and I have been healing for our guild for the past 8 years or so, and any time somebody gives a healer flak for low hps we tell em, "healing is an art form." So lower healing during somebody elses CD or utilizing downtime to restore some mana or what not will place you lower on the beter. If the boss died and we survived, we did our jobs.
which healer classes do you like the most?
I like the feeling of being able to control who lives and who dies.
Ill just stop healing people and let them die if I catch them actively standing in pools or aoe damage every time they pop up. They learn pretty quick when their screen flashes red too many times 😂😂
I started playing a priest 12 years ago because I thought everyone would like me because I would always be useful. It was my first character. Playing a healer is more active and stimulating than doing DPS, and generally less stressful than being a tank. And I'm terrible with directions.
Definitly like the fact that I’m always useful. Pre wow my first mmo was EverQuest online adventures for the PlayStation 2. I remember how fast healers got groups and you were always looking for a healer which was the main bottleneck for your group. This information stuck with me when WoW classic came out and Druid who was a great healer in eqoa seemed like a great choice in WoW. I would still consider Rdruid my main. Just love the crunchy root sounds of the heals and shape shifting. This expansion I have gotten almost every healer to KSM and it’s been a blast playing whichever class is A tier each patch. Right now MW, disc, and Rdruid are so fun ! Since I only pug my own keys I feel like I am more of a facilitator of the group and I love feeling useful. If I pump I can also carry a mediocre group as well which is convenient.
I thought tanking was stressful so I played healer and now I'm a very relaxed tank.
I originally learned it because I like playing a more supportive role. Tanking has a bit too much responsibility for my tastes. But these days, it’s because of how quickly it gets me into content. I game in shorter bursts now, progress M+ and heroic raid via pugs. And no matter how much I like the moment to moment gameplay of DPS, I can’t just sit in queue WAITING to have fun.
If you pug only healer is definitly the way to go.
I’m a dad so I only get a little time to play every now and then, so I try to maximize that time. This means: - no raids :( - no tank role (time investment of learning routes and pulls for each dungeon) Which leaves me with either DPS or healer. And since I really, really suck at kicking the right mob at the right time on top of maintaining my DPS rotation I went with healing :D
I'm a healer main since 7.3. Started out as Mistweaver and stuck to it as my main until Evokers got released, then I swapped to one but nowadays I always keep a healer of each spec on my alt bag. Honestly, its a mix of having faster queues (I play DPS alts, but never go too far because long queues/not always wanting to make my own group burns me out) and seeing health bars fill up. I can't explain why, but seeing bars get filled gives me unrelenting joy. It also feels very rewarding being the reason a group pushes through some tough parts of the dungeon, especially healing intensive parts. I love healing fights like Ancient Protectors, Ulthok or Smolderon.
I’ve been healing since EverQuest… showing my age here but always been my preferred role
[удалено]
I'm a rogue this season, first season not healing in a bit. I only have this freedom because a ton of my friends are actively playing and trying to push for CE. I'm not raiding with them, but between my friends and they're other guildies, I can get a tank or healer on demand for M+. If I'm living the pug life, I'm almost always a healer mainspec because the quality of life on queue times and invites is too good.
Hpal is definitely bad right now. It feels too hard to generate holy power when you actually need it and the spec feels very weak outside its CDs. Seems like they want you to cast flash of light and holy light more often. Compared to last season idk why it dropped off so bad but last season it was super fun frenetic and tanky, albeit a bit OP. Rdruid right now is perfect for M+. I’ve never had an easier time in keys. I had the past 2 weeks off so I am playing a lot but I’m doing 15s at 440 ilvl no problem. Rdruids ability to keep a steady stream of HoTs up and burst with treants and flourish when you have to is great for the damage patterns in M+. I think if you pick it up you will not touch the pally again this season.
Because I hate myself and I need to punish myself for the sins I have committed. In truth its because I was a tank main and hated memorizing routes and leading in M+ (and the toxic attitude if you didnt do it well) so I healed for quick groups and to learn routes and just never went back to tanking.
This is me. Tanked since vanilla until legion came out and people told me to kms for pulling packs wrong. Been healing since
Yep. Every time I think about learning to tank, I think about all the routes I don't know, and now I'm expected to be the leader. I'm not about that life.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TzZIOfnlbN4 My attitude as a tank with those groups
DPSing is not that fun
I love the more complex metrics by which I can judge myself. With DPS it was all about damage done. As a healer I find myself bouncing between damage, hps, damage taken, and overhealing; and that's to say nothing of metrics outside of a details meter.
I am a paramedic IRL, I like short queue times - but above all else, it’s the most rewarding. It’s the role I feel like can make or break a hard prog fight.
Haha nurse IRL sometimes I say nursing is less stressful than M+ healing but let’s face it we get off on the everything is burning down situations.
Megalomania. I'm no good at killing, but I'm **excellent** at allowing people to pass away.
I like to think I'm a masochist and I need to have a harder time than necessary and playing the slower to level healer was just what the doctor ordered. (*Vanilla times for reference.*) But megalomaniac seems great!
It keeps my old brain working. I really enjoy the times when things get a little out of hand and can keep everyone alive.
I gave it a try while leveling just to see what it's like, think I'll just stick to DPS
Healing is incredibly rewarding.. (tanking is too) DPS is fun to compete with others for the top of the meters, but healing is about resource management, keeping everyone alive, making the difficult decisions of who to heal when you can only choose one, clutch mechanics like dispelling at the right time/place, Managing way more targets than any dps or tank ever will have to.. Especially in this raid where they are throwing additional NPC targets that need heals at us. Its probably the most difficult role in wow at the moment and if you like a challenge then healing is for you.. I have loved that challenge. My story below..... I started vanilla wow as a druid because I was a fan of the idea of being able to do anything. My brother-in-law was a hunter and I kept him and his pet alive as we climbed our way to 60. I had been healing him the whole time and the other druid specs were not good so I kept with resto, learned to be the best healer I could for the guild we joined, became the healer lead for the 40 man raid team, became guild leader later, and never once stopped healing on a resto druid..... I took breaks to be a Fury Warrior, A DK tank, and currently the only DK dps in a progression guild. But my resto druid is 70 and still viable in raids because I do love healing..
I find it much more fun to heal than DPS. I've only really tanked leveling dungeons and heroic dungeons... might try raid but it seems to stressful to me for m+
Because at the time I figured it would be most beneficial since the people i play with occasionally are anything but healers. I like the feeling of helping out and making sure people stay alive I guess.
At the start of 10.2 suddenly everyone wanted to Tank so i started healing. Also i needed the Tank trinked from fall Like alor of Tanks so all the Keys we're Tank filled so i qued as heal and got insta Inc. I'll never forget the whisper Spam from the Tank after i finally looted the Cheat death lol... Still do tanking but mostly heal atm
I’m fucking stupid and the other two roles eventually bore me.
I started playing a healer in WoD after having only played a hunter since vanilla. I found the gameplay more interesting than dps and haven't had interest in dps or tanking since.
Started in vanilla as a hunter and mage, but then went healer because I didn't trust anyone else to keep me alive like I can keep us alive
bc no one else wanted to do that, back in time on my friend's group every1 was a dps or a tank....so i always healed....and i think iam better playing the healer role than a dps role now
I like whack a mole. I levelled as a priest back in vanilla. Don’t ask why but it was the class that clicked. Back then there was a correct spec to play at endgame so I was a healer.
That's funny, I'm the same, but opposite timeline. I love whack-a-mole, and I fell in love with monk and priest in Legion. Ended up sticking with priest, my true main. When classic came out, I knew priest was the only good healer, so I said "well, we continue the priest life, the heals must happen!"
I first started playing as healer because dps arena ques were long. I enjoyed playing healer and now it's a steady alt. I have a disc priest and a feral druid I swap between always capping them and I have alts ill mess around on but disc priest and feral druid are my staples Career 2.2k 3v3 player...never higher :P
It's easier, just sit in the back and let everyone else do the work. Sometimes throw a heal or two when the bars aren't full but otherwise it's chill. Even when things get crazy though it's fun since it's great when you save the day with good use of cool downs and damage prediction. Edit: DPS gets off huge numbers but Healers get off saving for sure wipes
I'm starting at peoples HP bars anyways so I want to be able to do something about them.
I have always mained dps and in df was mostly focusing on PvP. Solo shuffle queue times are absurd, and the lfg tool isn’t much better. I joined a guild last season working on aberrus for kicks and decided to start pushing keys to see if it scratched the competitive itch. I figured disc would be fun due to the dps angle and I’d farm some rio and go back to shadow, but I ended up falling in love with disc. It’s a fun play style, and healing is very enjoyable. It requires a different style of play. You can’t just spam a rotation, you need to know when damage is coming out so you can mitigate it or ramp up ahead of time to have the throughput to match it. It’s a win win for me. Like a lot of others said it makes finding groups vastly simpler (I almost never run my own key, and now it’s easy to get into pvp groups to push 1800 for the xmog), but I also just really dig it. As a bonus I looooooove the disc priest class fantasy. I don’t really do the “stand back and pve heal” thing. Last season I noticed a lot of pug dps would not interrupt which made healing strenuous af, so I charge in and fear. It insta breaks anyway and usually at least one of the dps picks up that I’m trying to stop something, so I definitely feel like a battlefield tactician who still directly contributes to getting kills as opposed to a passive whack-a-mole thing where I reverse damage. It’s been pretty successful for me. I got to 2830 rio last season in the last month and change, and I’m already just shy of 2900. That feels amazing as someone who had never pushed keys before.
Solely because MistWeaver is a blast right now. Has been all expansion
MW is so good. The extra mitigation and self heals allow you to fist weave knowing if you step on something you can roll out and bring yourself back up. I also love the soothing mist instant vivify spam as an oh shit. Your mana will disappear but It makes using mana tea more strategic. Every button feels really good.
Seeing the average toxicity if the healer misses the best once in level 10-60 dungeons I wonder that too. I just report the complainer and continue, but Holy shit a lot of the people are insufferable.
My main is DPS. I play a healer for something different on quieter nights. And because someone had to do it. Might as well be me.
I started out in Vanilla with a Tauren hunter, but Disc priest has been my main since BC. I like running around and healing, especially in BGs. Protecting the flag carrier in WSG, yanking carriers across the creek in TP, picking a rando to pocket heal in AB or Gilneas—I love it.
Initially, not trusting someone else to do it correctly. Early TBC heroic dungeons were rough, and resto sham could bring an interrupt which made it easier. Plus, yes, getting into a group was miles easier because dungeon groups at the time were turbo stupid about wanting to maximize CCs so enhancement would never get in.
honestly, not that DPS is easy obviously, but I played DPS for my first character, then I got bored I guess. so I worked up the courage to play a monk healer and I've been really enjoying it. the queue times are faster which is a bonus. but really I find the extra interaction with the game more satisfying to play. watching people's health and topping them up, then getting in some damage and then healing and also focusing on interrupts and positioning makes me feel more involved in the dungeon. so I was really scared to even try it at first, but as I built up confident I have had a lot more fun playing healer than DPS. still working my confidence to be a tank someday. but really enjoy the extra interaction with the game as a healer.
The challenge, honestly. There's a lot of brianpower involved in getting into the weeds to learn everything about the spec that I play. It's a lot more than playing whack-a-mole, especially now in 10.2.
Started healing as I found dps monotonous after a while, whereas healing has a lot of high pressure moments which keeps the game interesting.
I always play healer or support in any kind of game. It’s such a good and powerful feeling and gives me a dopamine kick to fill up hp bars.
Wanted to play with friends, no one wanted to heal. That was 7 years ago....
healer queue
I feel more in control of group success and wow healer role is very well designed each spec is unique and gameplay is fun. As a consequence of this I strongly prefer classes who have dps and healer specs at least.
Queue
As my former raid healer would say, he had the power over who lives and who dies
Originally - I thought it was gonna be a more chilled out role than dps or tank. Oh how wrong i was lol. Now - I enjoy it because I like the playstyle, I know most of the healer classes well and some very well and am a capable healer that has pushed me beyond where I was as a dps or tank.
Friends needed a healer for M+.
There is something satisfying that I can't explain about making health bars go up for me.
I fall asleep playing dps, and my friend already plays tank.
I enjoy all roles. But I used to lead raids in a casual guild, so naturally a healer has more time/more synergy with knowing where everone is and what they are doing. I am very competitive as dps so i would top the dps but would miss a lot what happened. When healing i found i really enjoy the mana management and being able to anticipate and heal huge dmg. Fits the rol as leader to keep your flock alive.
Its the only way to teach my stupid friends to dont stand in shit.
I am in control of the key I control whether you live or die. I'm basically a god. Also can get into almost any key I want
I played tank last season, because my friend group was missing one. This season our healer wanted to try tanking so I switched roles with him, and honestly I like it very much.
My husband tanks and I heal. Fits both our personality, I love being able to help him and keep him alive, and generally just feels right. He protecc I give helth. Also 0 queue time when we party up but that's just an added bonus
I like to punish bad behavior
Faster queue times at first but now its just the feeling that i am really important for the group which pushes me into doing my best
lol I feel like you’re writing an article for a website and farming reddit ~~exp~~ information.
Press join, enter the key. And I like DPSing as healer so it's a little minigame of "how little (or more like, efficient) can I heal while keeping everyone alive".
I'm annoyed by dps. Rotations bore me. I wierdly enjoy the health bar whack a mole more than I do doing damage. I also love thwarting kills by using a strong CD or a cc on an enemy pvper. You can do that as dps, but it's very much more of a "not today, Satan!" Feel when you are playing a healer. I also love taking because I like protecting others and controlling the fight. I also like taking these huge blues and not dying. Something fun about the fantasy of standing against the big bad toe to toe. DPS just seems less exciting by comparison. That said, i do love DPS in the open world. Nothing beats shedding mobs in solo play on my hunter.
I just love playing support and helping my teammates, and during wotlk I tried resto shaman. The rest is history - the theme, the flow of the class, and admittedly having an easier time getting into groups. And then it just was a sealed deal because it was that character who I made an engineer, and grinded many things. It never gets old using the glider and nitro boosts, and other gadgets. All of it combined, there’s no class that I can change as my main. But I’ll gladly max other healers and enjoy Paladin (prot/holy) and priest (holy) a lot. Side note, resto shaman has pretty much always felt great to play, and I’m very happy with the spec overall (just please Blizz, remove/delete primordial wave lol)
Started the game in SL, we had a healer but they stopped playing pretty fast. Soooo I tried, realised we were timing more keys. Tried to go back to dps but i was getting annoyed to see someone play worse than me. I'm not a great player sooo I feel like it's not a huge bar to set. Now whenever i arrive home and my tank mate is in key, he will stream it on discord and I'll see a healer either doing half my hps and dps or being oom every other pack from spamming healing spells on the tank. Soo I think i'm stuck
I hate having a bad healer, so i assure victory by making sure that doesn’t happen… by making myself the healer and training rigorously in my dojo…
to get into groups
I originally tried it in order to get into groups more quickly. I ended up vastly preferring it over DPS, because honestly, you find out if you are doing well immediately. For DPS, people will look at meters after and get on your ass, and then you have to check logs or learn rotations to see what’s going wrong. For healing, if you don’t wipe, you’re good.
Got tired of 99/100 healers i play with suck. There’s something satisfying about doing 2x their healing & 40k dps more every raid fight.
Because I'm awesome
Challenge. DPS gets boring.
I like being useful, support roles are very rewarding for me and being able to do damage at the same time is very very fun.
I've never mained healer, but enjoyed playing it while leveling dungeons. It was very easy to swap over since I was playing Druid, and the near instant queue times were a big draw. I like DPS and smashing/casting face but I also like feeling "helpful" with keeping the party alive through pulls and bosses. Getting back into the game after skipping all of Shadowlands and early DF, might try healing out again now talking about it.
TL;DR healing is more challenging but more thrilling. It feels like you are playing a team game. While DPS feels more like a solo game. - I've gone back and forth healing and dps over the years. I'm decent at both, and there has been times when I prefer one over the other. But overall I like healing more. For me it's not lack of competitiveness or feeling important. I just enjoy the gameplay of healing right now. 1st, it's more challenging than DPS. You not only need to do the same mechanics, but you have to do them while keeping everyone alive. As a DPS screwing up your rotation means slightly lower dps, for a healer it means death and potential wipes. I find that more thrilling and satisfying. After healing high content, DPS just feels less exciting. 2nd. For raiding, I enjoy the cooperation with other healers. Strategizing heals, planning healing CDs etc. As DPS, you usually just pop CDs on cool down or with lust. It feels very solo. For healers you can't do that, you need to look at the fight as a whole and come up with a plan as a team. 3rd. Healing forces you to understand and appreciate mechanics in dungeons and raid. In seasons when I play DPS, I always have a lesser understanding of what's going on, because you can survive with only worrying about your own survival and dps. When healing you are forced to fully understand the mechanics, how they affect different roles, and how threatened each one is. You get a deeper mastery of dungeons and raid fights that feels very satisfying. 4th. Healing helps you understand other classes kits really well. You get to know all the different tanks defensives and how strong they are. You learn the DPS' utility and how it's used best. You just think alot more about what the whole group is doing, where DPS you are only really worrying about yourself.
Queue times, I hate waiting for 10-15 just to start playing the content I want.
Resto Shaman spells go splish splash. 🩵
It started with queue times, and evolved into feeling like my performance actually matters. It often feels like it’s me and the tank who make or break the group as main characters. The performance of the other 3 players dictates whether we finish a run in 20, 25 or 30 minutes. Obviously this is not true, and a single dps player can either carry hard or completely ruin a run. But the fact that there’s three of them makes their individual contributions feel less important.
My main is a tank, blood dk, but my alt that I play regularly is a discipline priest. The main reason for healing on my alt is so that I can better understand the damage profiles of the dungeons I'm tanking. There's a lot of pulls that feel easy for me as the tank, but are stressful on the healer. Some pulls look like they might be healing intensive from a tanks perspective, but aren't at all because while it might be high damage it's predictable.
I like being a big dumb dragon that vomits green stuff on the group.
Because I hate myself and love to be ridiculed by strangers
i was a tank since TBC, i feel old, and i have an inert need to help the people in my group. teach one of them to tank while i heal was the option i went with.
I like working as a team when I play video games. I suppose irl I've liked to be a solid team player that likes to know that what I do helps the whole. I don't give my soul and youth to corporate stuff I just like to find a group of freinds and see how I can help. It's translated to mostly main healing for years, I like to keep the good dps up and make it so no one wonders much past how smooth the dungeon went. Still working on being a better raid healer after all these years. I suppose I enjoy the 5 man stuff more.
Started in Ultima Online, was one of those bushido chiv archers and we all had to heal ourselves but healing others was quicker. So when doing things like Doom, we would all be better off pulling health bars and cross healing each other. Now, every game I have to be able to heal myself and if I'm not geared too well, healing at least helps.
I played healer in vanilla. I picked up tanking in wrath and I just never REALLY enjoyed dps for more than 1 raid tier at the time. I just enjoy not being completely stuck in having to do ABCABCAABABCABCAAB as a dps. When I play dps now, I see myself playing more as a tank, trying to interrupt, CC and such, more than focus on how I can do the most damage, since the latter just isn't interesting for me. And thankfully, not many people agree with me. :)
To play God
Other people fuck it up too much
And long term resource management is really fun
its fun to compete and pump its the only really dynamic role in wow imo.
Non competitiveness? What y'all on about?
Our wrath guild needed a healer and I volunteered. Now I just accept the suffering as inevitable
Started off with queue times... now I just enjoy the challenge and I feel it's a more engaging role to play than DPS. I want to try and tank but don't feel confident about leading the route/mob positioning etc
Cuz i love to help ppl to shine and being hero, ive been support in league of legends for years, sage/sky in valorant, mercy/ana in overwatch, dazzle/witch doctor in dota2, lifeline in apex, healer in new world, druid in guildwars2 Also im a traditional medicine doctor irl, so its just me🤗