When I first heard about it some weeks ago, I was a bit confused as to why Blizzard would buff spell damage for healing classes. That’s not to say that I didn’t understand the benefit of allowing healing-specced characters to perform better in solo content, but isn’t such a change an unfair advantage that non-healing specs don’t get?
The idea is to convert +healing bonuses on gear to +spell damage bonuses, equivalent to one-third of the +healing number. In other words, +33 to healing will also give the wearer +11 to spell damage. Not bad, considering this is a free bonus to healing-specced characters. However, DPS characters don’t get the reverse advantage; shouldn’t DPS specs get one-third of the benefit from +healing gear converted to spell damage?
The change is grounded in the assumption that if healing specced characters can perform better in solo content, then more healing classes will spec for group environments. I consider this faulty logic. If anything, it will make people who don’t play healing specced characters roll on +healing gear, even if it’s slightly better suited for a more pure healer. What Blizzard should be doing instead is to give a +healing benefit to +spell damage gear, allowing healing specced characters to fight for gear on the same level, and allow people to play DPS specs and still give healing benefit to the groups they’re in.
In the end, DPS specs are popular because of the massive amounts of damage they can dish out, not because healing specs dish out no damage at all. After this change, healing specs still won’t out-damage DPS specs, so players won’t be inclined to suddenly switch specs to Holy/Restoration unless they were previously okay with being a support class. This is why Balance/Feral Druids, Beast Mastery and Marksmanship Hunters, Retribution Paladins, Shadow Priests, and Elemental/Enhancement Shamans are popular builds in the first place, compared to their healing/support counterparts.
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