In WoW: Dragonflight, Restoration Druids and Preservation Callers dominate Season 1 of the Mythic+ dungeons. They also outperform other healers in raids and PvP. Some players are therefore demanding adjustments.
What happened? Some dungeons in WoW are currently considered almost unplayable and have therefore received multiple nerfs. Healers in particular complain about how difficult it has become to master Mythic+ with Dragonflight. Only with two classes does this not seem to have arrived.
The Raider.IO platform recently published statistics showing which classes are more likely to complete high keystones in Mythic+ dungeons. The data shows that two classes of healers stand out significantly from the field.
Restoration druids are by far the most popular healers for high keystones. At just over 40%, they make up the largest proportion of all healers. They are followed by calls for protection with around 25.9%.
Holy Priests come third with 14.8%, followed by Holy Paladins with 10.7%. After that, there’s a gaping gap to the bottom places: Restoration Shamen make up just 4.2% of the top-level Mythic+ population.
Discipline priests are still represented with 2.2%. At the very bottom are the Mistweaver Monks, of which only 1.9% are found in the high Mythic + groups.
In PvP, Druids and Callers are currently at the top of the popularity scale. However, the distribution of the healers is somewhat more even here. By the way, my MMO demon Cortyn really enjoys PvP with WoW, although she can’t do it at all.
Mobility is the key to success
Why are these two classes so popular? The unique selling point, which gives the druids and callers a decisive advantage, is their mobility. Most of my druid’s healing comes from heal-over-time (“HoT”) spells, so they don’t have to be in place to heal efficiently.
This is especially useful in mythical dungeons when groups are trying to kill a lot of monsters at once to save time. Their mobility also allows druids to more easily dodge certain harmful mechanics. They also have a very effective group heal spell in their Wild Growth ability. Talents like Revitalize, which help the party regenerate resources, round out the toolkit.
Preservation Callers also have strong abilities and talents. They are particularly good at avoiding damage. Their toolkit allows them to maneuver their allies out of dangerous situations. With talents like Zephyr or Time Spiral, they can temporarily increase their party’s movement speed, or allow their allies to use movement abilities regardless of their cooldown.
Additionally, Callers can cast spells by hovering while moving, far more often than other classes with similar abilities. This also puts them at the top in terms of mobility.
If you would like to try out a Dracthyr Rufer yourself, then we have the right guide for you: WoW Dragonflight: Rufer Guide – How to play the new Evoker class with builds for DPS & healers
You can see the most popular M+ dungeons from Season 1 here in the video:
WoW Dragonflight: All Season 1 dungeons ranked
This is what the community says: Players are somewhat contrite that only two classes appear to be “playable” – although this topic is often discussed with DPS classes as well. Some users find that the solution is not nerfs for the strong classes, but buffs for everyone else.
For example, it says on reddit: “Resto Druids and Preservation Callers are so strong because they reliably create the content. If you make them weaker, the content is no longer as easy. There are deficits that need to be remedied. Nerfs ruin the game, buffs help everyone.”
Blizzard has already made some adjustments to the classes and is bringing big buffs to 9 classes, including some healers. More updates are sure to come in the future. It remains to be seen how strong they will be.
More about WoW: Dragonflight on MeinMMO:
It’s also quite possible that the distribution of healers will change again with the rotation of the M+ dungeons at the beginning of next season. If the content has other mechanics that require particularly strong individual or group healing, for example, then other healers could be in the spotlight.
What do you all mean? Should Blizzard swing the Nerf club here? Or is the whole thing not so dramatic? Maybe it’s a different story at lower keystone levels? Share your experiences with the community and leave us a comment.
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