Mists of Pandaria is something of a scary thought for the future of many healers. The introduction of another class that is capable of tanking, DPSing and healing marks a potential destabilizing factor. While it is scary, it is also exciting to a lot of players. Shaking things up isn’t always a bad thing, and it has the potential to introduce some very different playstyles. The most important question, though, is what the addition of another healing class could potentially mean for how the other healing classes play and are balanced.
The introduction of the monk class has the potential to trigger a series of changes that could wind up being seen across all of the healing classes — that is, depending on the reception it receives. These changes are things that some healers might not have considered or further expanding of particular mechanics that are already in game. With that said, it’s time for a bit of speculation!
An active healing model
The first potential change — and it’s a major one — is the introduction of the active healing model. What is an active healing model? Well, I touched on this a little bit before, but ultimately, an active healing model is one that forces the healer to do something other than target a player frame and cast a spell. So if it breaks away from the whack-a-mole healing of our forefathers, chances are it’s classified as active healing.
Right up front, you’ll see that a healing monk will be doing a lot of running or rolling around. As it was described previously, the healing monk will dodge out of combat to place healing totems or wards or what have you, and then dive back into combat to deal damage and trigger the healing effect if they want to melee. If ranged is more their style, there will be an option to deal damage from afar as well and still heal. It’s pure hybrid healing like no other. You deal damage to heal, and you have to pay extra attention to your environment, player health and the boss you’re facing.