Quote Originally Posted by Connor View Post
Idk personally I think the fact that most suggestions for balancing White Mage are to increase its DPS is just a sign of the problem lol. I mean, it’s a healer. Shouldn’t we be balancing it based on how well it can...heal? As we should for all healers lol.

The fact that all healers have to be balanced doubly as healer and DPS feels to me like we’re in the starting lanes for the wrong race. I think White Mage’s ‘lagging behind’ is the result of this, and unless they turn it into a full blown DPS with a slew of mechanics and basically make Lillies a DPS mechanic, it’s never going to fit into the current game design where healers are also damage dealers.

Basically I think that because healer balancing is so focused on DPS rather than healing, other healers will always have to play second fiddle to Scholar. I think it’s time they reassessed the design of ‘healing’ as a whole, because it’s never been truly balanced. Not when the role is judged on how well they can perform a different role lol
Unfortunately, you can't balancing for healing (entirely) because there is only a finite number of HPS needed to get through each content. Once all three kits can achieve that theoretically HPS (either from skill, gear, or kit design), the next metric we have to balance around is DPS contribution.

This isn't to say HPS and DPS don't go hand in hand either. A kit with a better HPS kit can potentially allow for more overall healer DPS as the required GCDs to heal will be lessened.

Also, higher DPS can also lead to lower HPS requirements due to potential of skipped phases or mechanics.

I guess S-E could build some sort of scaling system that increases a monsters parameters based on the ilvl of the target but that would completely defeat the purpose of the vertical progression we have. In fact I believe it's one of the leading complaints of the new WoW expansion (IE, it's actually faster to kill monsters wearing less item level - you actually get "weaker" the more gear you get)

One could make the argument that you make WHM HPS so powerful your WHM can solo heal the content and your just bring a 5th DPS for optimized DPS - but I know there are more than a few people on these forums that are adamant against that. I don't like it either but it feels like the only way to make a "pure healer" thrive in the current environment if you remove DPS balance from the equation and focus entirely on HPS potential.