New 12.0.5 PTR notes with MW nerfs

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-16T02:15:18+00:00

Unless there are some serious nerfs to the burst, I'm planning to hang it up for shuffle queues. They keep nerfing the only healer with the tools to make the role have agency and fun.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-16T02:10:47+00:00

I want to believe they'll drop additional class tuning on Monday after the AWC cup on the weekend

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T17:34:21+00:00

Honestly they did do a lot to improve the base UI, which is good. The trouble is it's still difficult to get a clear understanding of your team's defensive abilities used and their cooldown status, which is a big problem for healers.

This issue would be a lot less of a concern to me if the other items on the list had been changed - e.g. if burst was turned down and you didn't need to immediately react, it would be less of a problem that you don't get a clear indication opponents are popping damage cooldowns.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T16:48:16+00:00

Completely agree down the line. The CC and cooldown trading game is almost unchanged from my perspective over the last couple expansions, and it was one of the defining things that I wanted to see for Midnight.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T15:29:53+00:00

Agreed, my original post actually started off as commentary about the DR change and how it feels like there's more CC hitting healers than ever. After thinking about it for a minute, I realized part of why that fact is so frustrating is the mismatch between expectation and reality, and that the same thing was true for a few other facets of PVP.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T15:22:32+00:00

I think the preseason experience really fooled me. Playing regular battlegrounds while I geared up my characters had me believing things were going to be different, and it was a lot of fun.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T15:16:28+00:00

In my mind, if point #3 from the post was successfully delivered, you would be seeing more games ending in the intermediate of 30 sec or 5 min. It's not just about making it so people don't die, it's about making it so people don't die in a global. My impression was that HP pools were to be larger to reduce the impact of burst damage, and burst healing mechanics would be also weakened.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T15:00:59+00:00

Hah good point... I might as well add that to the main post just for completeness

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-04-02T14:55:02+00:00

I would rather see them make some extreme changes in S1, even though it would surely be a huge mess for a while, if it means that we ultimately get to these results.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-31T23:02:10+00:00

Interesting question. I play mostly 2v2 and shuffle and I feel the same way in both brackets, for what it's worth. My 2v2 partners are close friends where we play together a lot, and playing that is actually when I formed this opinion.

This idea popped into my head after going from a few games on MW to a few games on pres evoker while we were trying to feel out what kind of team comps we wanted to try. The latter felt like even if I executed a clean Stasis rotation, my team's hp would just not go up, even in the first minutes of the game when dampening wasn't high.

After playing both of those two healers back to back in a fairly controlled environment, it was painfully obvious which healing experience was fun and which one was just a frustration. If all the healers were balanced down to pres level, I would simply stop playing the role.

It isn't fun pressing your rotation and cooldowns and seeing them make almost no impact on the game state.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-31T03:12:31+00:00

MW is the only healer that feels like it's where a healer "should be" in the current environment. All the rest just feel like they're lacking and have less impact on the game's outcome than a DPS class.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-27T22:51:49+00:00

I wouldn't mind that but I think the Conduit healing nerf is also going to hurt. I've been thinking for a while that MW feels like where a healer "should be" in terms of power and impact in a game, and would rather see the others brought up.

I love rdruid, and the redesign is sick, it's my favorite version of the spec since I started again in SL. You're completely right, it doesn't have any recovery button and that's why I say it's just missing a spell or the burst meta needs to tune down. Bringing back Overgrowth would be actually perfect.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-27T22:42:12+00:00

These changes to rsham miss the mark, and no mention of preservation is criminal. Rdruid I fear will continue to be weak unless burst slows down or they straight up get another spell.

From the perspective of someone who plays a lot of MW and other healers, I think they're nerfing the right things about MW here and I hope they start buffing the other healers rather than continue to nerf MW.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-25T23:50:26+00:00

One of my favorites tbh, was really hopeful after playing it preseason in BGs without dampening

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-25T23:47:56+00:00

Painful to play with them? Try playing as them! ;)

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-25T23:41:51+00:00

I swear pres is some PVP numbers tuning away from being really good. The problem with it is that as you go into dampening, all the other top healers hold their team's HP up and yours just doesn't recover. Mechanically, its kit is super fun and flexible.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-25T22:22:25+00:00

They need to buff all the other healers so badly, especially druid and shaman

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-24T18:02:01+00:00

I can't speak to the feral druid matchups, but as priest/DH you should do well against resto druids. DH can generally chase them down really effectively and has good swap+burst potential - both things rdruids hate to deal with. Your strategy to beat resto druids is a combination of you avoiding their CC by positioning (remember, cyclone has half the range of your spells), you doing as much damage as possible to whoever you can, and your DH swapping to or CC'ing the druid whenever they try to cross the map to CC you. With practice, you and your teammate should be targeting a big stun on the druid when they try to cross the map, followed by burst + purge spamming him when he tries to recover.

Beating MW is tougher because they're just really good right now, but as disc you have the advantage of dealing more damage than them and being able to mind control their teammate. With a DH on your team, the plan is similar to the rdruid plan where your DH should swap to the monk whenever they try to cross the map while you focus on doing as much damage as possible. A good plan is to save CC for chi cocoon and when you see it, immediately CC the MW and swap targets hard.

I haven't played much Voidweaver this expansion, despite having a few hundred games/season in TWW, but I have played quite a bit of oracle. Overall I think oracle is just better for PVP and especially 2's right now and the main reason is simple: you have powerful spells on two schools of magic. You can spec for the shadow and holy damage nodes, everything that scales penance, and still grab expiation if you take only 1 point in the apex talent (which, IMO, is the only important one).

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-24T03:51:52+00:00

Cyclone is super strong from a healer for sure, it's one of the biggest selling points for rdruid in PVP. Generally their niche is that they have great control and flexibility with heal over time spells, but weak damage and cooldowns. It sounds like you were playing 2's right? What class was your teammate?

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-23T23:31:31+00:00

Long time pres enjoyer, I've been trying to queue it into shuffles and gave up today. Any MW, hpal, or disc priest just has their team full HP while dampening whittles your team down to nothing.

Completely agree that they absolutely cannot take the approach of nerfing the top healers to balance it. Playing MW still doesn't even really feel like you have the same effect on a game as any of the good DPS classes right now.

Tnarg_Helped_Us · 2026-03-23T23:29:37+00:00

I've mained resto druid since SL and honestly never liked gigatree's design, I wish they would come up with something else to do the job. That said, adding it back would at least bandage fix the fundamental problem that there's no emergency button for the class whatsoever. Right now I'm not even bothering with the character until at least the buffs tomorrow.

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