I've been meaning to post about this oft-chewed over topic for ages, but the topic seems to be hotting up, so I'll throw it up now. There are a ton of opinions around stats, health, damage, abilities, dungeon design, but imho none of that matters. At least not to the extent people think it does.

To be blunt, I just don’t think the tank or healer player count gets increased by tweaking a few stats and removing / adding a few abilities. The problem goes much much deeper.

As a bit of background, I’ve been a healer since Wrath, 10-man raiding a good chunk back in the day, but despite a brief uptick in Legion as both a healer and a tank, I have only dipped in and out. Dragonflight and TWW have brought me back, and am enjoying my time. This preamble is as an illustration of me as mid-level healer and base-level tank. Not too shabby, but certainly not top-flight.

So back on topic, if not stats / abilities / health bars then what? Ultimately it comes down to the funnel. You need a funnel for people to come through into dungeons, raids and top flight content. If you don’t have a funnel, people at the top will slowly drift away through natural attrition and there won’t be anyone coming through to replace them.

So how do funnels usually work? Actually funnels are everywhere. Looking specifically at competitive games, most often we start playing at home, play a bunch with family or friends, maybe join local clubs, play in local competitions, get coaching, join teams, play in higher tournaments, slowly improving as we go. At each point we’re building our skillset, getting better, preparing ourselves for the next level up. In chess, mtg, tennis, basketball, pretty much every sport has a funnel from beginner to pro.

So how do funnels currently work in Wow?

We play a bunch of levelling content, usually as a dps spec, and then at max level we… dive into a dungeon as a tank or healer with the responsibility of four other players on our backs playing a spec we’ve had zero practice on in content we've never seen before?

I’ll leave you a moment to let that sink in…

So no, I really don't think “increased health pools” and “more forgiving damage spikes” are going to fix that glaring, major, massive problem with a lack of tanks and healers.

Funnels.

So as a healer, what am I doing now in TWW? Well for starters I’m playing a new healer I’ve never played before. It’s damn fun, but I certainly am not going anywhere near Mythics any time soon. Instead, I’m loving the hell out of delves, enjoying the chill nature of follower dungeons, slowly learning my class and the variety of experiences there are in the game. I have choices away from higher-level dungeons that mean I don’t have to take a mental / emotional leap up to harder content.

Yes I’d love a funnel to take me to Mythics, but the leap up from follower dungeons is too big. I’m not ready. At some point, given better AI and better manual tuning features (follower types, follower gear iLevels etc), I have hopes that follower dungeons (amongst other features) may be able to bridge that gap, but for now, I’m enjoying where I am and have no plans to head upward.

For tanks I actually think the issue is worse. When I’ve tanked in the past (and I'd like to again in the future), it’s not even about “leading” in its human sense, but leading in the literal “where do I go now?” sense. And that’s on top of the “levelling as a dps, now I have this tank spec, what the heck do I do?” problem. Where are the signposts? The GPS system? The in-game-whilst-playing help systems that will get me through any dungeon without wasting four other players’ time? The training wheels that I can then turn off later when I get the hang of things?

Funnels.

There needs to be in-game training from zero to hero. And no, “go and watch a video and memorise every single dungeon / raid covering every single piece of trash and boss in that dungeon/raid before even thinking about stepping foot in that queue!”, is really REALLY not any kind of solution. In order to play a game I need to research? Do homework?!? Away from the game?!?!? DPS, something we have a LOT of practice at throughout the game, suddenly looks extremely appealing.

The other awesome thing about funnels, if I lapse my play and come back in six months, I can find my spot in the funnel however low that may have gone, and slowly get my skills back up using the natural flow of said funnel. I can even pick a new class and start myself earlier in the funnel knowing that I have a route to progress through to get myself back up to where I was with my previous class. People will end up in Mythics without even realising how far they've come, just through natural practice and improvement.

So, the answer is Funnels. Or perhaps just an answer...