It's time to kill the argument that DPS abilities keep healers from healing.

[ToodlesElNoodles]

It fluctuates heavily from expansion to expansion, probably because Blizzard doesn't know where they want healer dps to be either. Holy Paladin was meta for M+ back in BFA, no idea where it falls now since they removed their Glimmer of Light healing.

Huh? Glimmer of Light still exists. It’s a talent instead.

And in WoW, the healer DPS was problematic because people would be turned down if you were the wrong class. Something Yoshi-P is very focused on preventing. Homogenization sucks, but it really helps to attain that balance.

I think the only two ways is either to change encounter designs or change healer to a support philosophy.

I’m not big on giving healers more complex DPS. I’m also not a big fan of making healing more stressful. And certain heal mechanics that other MMOs use would become unbalanced because of WHM Benediction.

I am a big fan of increasing the utility methods of healers so that they can contribute to the team without stepping too far on the DPS territory. Though arguably, adding a “utility rotation, why not just add a DPS rotation?

In a balanced world: playstyle preference.

[BooPoo]

Huh? Glimmer of Light still exists. It’s a talent instead.

And in WoW, the healer DPS was problematic because people would be turned down if you were the wrong class. Something Yoshi-P is very focused on preventing. Homogenization sucks, but it really helps to attain that balance.

I think the only two ways is either to change encounter designs or change healer to a support philosophy.

I’m not big on giving healers more complex DPS. I’m also not a big fan of making healing more stressful. And certain heal mechanics that other MMOs use would become unbalanced because of WHM Benediction.

I am a big fan of increasing the utility methods of healers so that they can contribute to the team without stepping too far on the DPS territory. Though arguably, adding a “utility rotation, why not just add a DPS rotation?

In a balanced world: playstyle preference.

Playstyle should vary. There should be healers that bring more pDPS (Sage?), healers that bring more rDPS(AST etc.) and healers with more utilities which translates to DPS. We shouldn't tunnel vision into only one variation.

[AFuzzyMu11in]

Playstyle should vary. There should be healers that bring more pDPS (Sage?), healers that bring more rDPS(AST etc.) and healers with more utilities which translates to DPS. We shouldn't tunnel vision into only one variation.

There will always be one style that is meta it never works.

[BooPoo]

There will always be one style that is meta it never works.

Depends on how much they vary. The current 3 healers all vary in terms of playstyle, but they are relatively balanced. Despite WHM could use a bit more window.

[Sebazy]

There will always be one style that is meta it never works.

That can be countered through content design with more thought put into it from a healing perspective. Midas (perhaps accidentally) pulled this off with WHM having some clear benefits over AST despite being numerically inferior.

Even if it boiled down to one healer being clearly the safer hand for progression with the other leading the way in farms, it all works out. It's only really an issue when one is just flat out superior to the other irrespective of the content at hand.

[Shurrikhan]

There will always be one style that is meta it never works.

Not true; almost every meta has still had several competing options, especially if one allows for more than a fleeting moment's worth of thought.

Moreover, condensing to certain norms at a particular given level of play in a particular region, so long as that constrained space is still reasonably large, isn't necessarily (or even typically) a sign of things not working.