Comments on: It came from the PUG: Northrend eats healers alive!

By: jeffo

jeffo — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:26:41 +0000

Healing for a Paladin in level-appropriate gear was very difficult in a number of those 70-80 dungeons. Especially when you started getting the nasty debuffs that needed to be cleansed in places like Old Kingdom and Azjol Nerub. Most people have forgotten that by now.

By: Theladas

Theladas — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:49:26 +0000

Actually, no. Heirlooms make dramatic stat jumps around 57 and 67 to compensate for the upcoming change of locale. They are always on-par with a well-itemized, properly-budgeted blue-quality item. Not all dungeon blues are so budgeted, but there are plenty of example pieces that, at the right level, are definite side-grades o heirlooms from level 20 (below-20 blues are lol) to level 80.

The solution for tanks that insist on making this particular pull in this fashion (one of the hardest pulls in the 5-man game, honestly) is to burn a cooldown pre-emptively. The whole problem is the stun component of those smiths: a mechanic that is never encountered with such severity until the blinding super-spider of AzN, but even then people rarely pull those three-packs simultaneously (outside of going for achievements). The seven smiths in UK, however, are lethal to at-gear-level tanks on N or H without a pre-emptive cooldown because, once stunned, there’s no way to activate the needed cooldown.

My tank blew up there the first time I made that pull on H, and I knew it wasn’t my good healer friend. I figured out the problem, fixed my approach, and can make that pull confidently with any half-conscious healer on N or H with an at-gear-level tank. My main problem these days is having DPS hitting targets before I can even get in charge range of them, let alone hit them with something.

By: Akasza

Akasza — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:32:05 +0000

Hmm, maybe you found the reason why healer population declines in Northrend dungeons…

I levelled 3 plate tank classes and I never dared to step into first Northrend dungeons without the famous “cobalt set”, however on my healer chars I saw all sorts of people geared from hellfire greens to DK starting gear not seeing any issue their gear is 10 levels and 1 expansion behind. Add the gogogo chainpull all mentality and you get the disaster…

I don’t know how is it post 4.0 but I’m afraid the same, sometimes you get nice runs and dps breaking 1-1,5k (yesm at 70), and sometimes you get paper tanks, 300dps “damage dealers” and poor healer running oom on Keristrasza (especially when people don’t bother to jump properly).

By: Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:36:28 +0000

It’s not the gear – it’s the players. Pulling multiple groups is rough, but healable if the group is good. Tanks can blow cooldowns, DPS can misdirect/tricks when the tank gets stunned and can mitigate some damage with stuns and disarms. I’ve been trying to top off a few of my alts and healing through Northrend dungeons has been really striking. I’m healing for more HPS (even overhealing my face off because health pools are only 10-15k) in regular UK than heroic UK . Dumb pulls, bad dps and fire-standers will make you work to keep them alive.

By: Argon

Argon — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:50:55 +0000

I did a bunch of healing while leveling, and I have to say that reg UK was the most difficult dungeon I encountered. There were a lot of wipes on the final boss because I couldn’t keep up with the damage. I think the problem is that everybody still has a ton of BC gear at that point, which is really awful compared to WotLK gear. It gets a lot easier once you have gained a few levels, and everybody has full WotLK gear.

By: Dionne

Dionne — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:00:12 +0000

I gave my priest a shadow spec when he hit Northrend for just this reason. I’d leveled that far just fine as discipline. I like disco priesting but trying to heal northrend pugs was killing my enjoyment of the game. The sad part is that it turns out I don’t much like playing a spriest so he’s sat at level 69 for a long time.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:23:37 +0000

I suspect this is truer than you think.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:22:50 +0000

Oh I pull the whole corridor when I’m tanking it on Spinks. And I’m bored of it however big the pulls are tbh

But I still think it’s not good tanking to assume that you and your gear alone can carry it – you don’t know how experienced the healer is or what their gear is like. I don’t want a tank to trust too much in my paladin healing because it hasn’t really been stretched yet and I’m still learning. When I’m good, then you can trust me.

And maybe you’re just that good but I found healing gear an issue on both my priest and paladin when first healing Wrath instances. It is a big step up from TBC and I did need to stop and drink a lot. If you don’t believe me, look at some of the other comments on this thread.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:19:41 +0000

I think the skill as a tank is in being able to work out how large a pull you and your healer, working as a team, can handle. And that means having an idea of both of your gear levels and abilities.

By: Salanna

Salanna — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:24:16 +0000

GC’s been back-and-forthing about this rationale for, oh, must be getting on a year now, and in that context I don’t read his explanation in the same way you do. I have the feeling that healing isn’t going to be harder as such, but that the type of challenge will change. For someone like me who prefers a less twitchy game, I think it might actually be “easier” – or at least a bit more thinky and less shit-shit-press-button-scary.