I left playing a healer after the heavy armor nerf, nothing like having to do another set of 600 to 625 gs armor. (they nerfed the proposed split stat armor on PTR when folks complained they would have to redo their armor to from 600 to 625 gs to take advantage of another 5 attribute points, supposedly. But that didn’t stop the heavy or medium armor healing nerf that caused healers to have to do it).
Wonder if they nerfed DPS or tank to -30 percent in heavy, 0 in medium and +20 percent in light armor to balance the armor, if they would complain. I was told with healing, if I think about it, it made sense. Well I think it would make sense right, for DPS or Tanks, but boy people would yowl and threaten to quit!
Of course the DPS and Tank said all healers heal in light armor only… which defies logic i.e. if no one or very few healers were wearing other than light armor why bother even spending the time to code and do it? Even if it was mainly for 3v3 arenas (conjecture, AGS never confirmed the healing armor nerf was for 3v3 arenas, to my knowledge) I knew quite a few healers personally in medium and heavy.
DPS is so much easier to play than Healing (or tanking) anyway. Just follow the cookie cutter guide on the meta armor, weapons, perks, abilities, rotations, etc. needed for DPS. Mash Q, R, F keys in rotational sequence per the meta, click left mouse button furiously, gripe nonstop about why you can’t easily kill healers and post daily in the forums about healers being OP.
I put together some healing armor and still heal occasionally but it is not as fun as it was. I would still give it a try though. If you PVE, Expeditions got somewhat tougher to do in light versus heavy armor but it is do-able. For PVP, if you get good, you can survive and contribution for the win.
As a side note, I don’t think people realize how the PVP healing in New World is the variable that keeps PVP Fresh and exciting and will keep PVP going for a long time to come. I have played almost all MMOs, PVE and PVP and when the healers easily get smoked in PVP, the healers die off. Then it becomes a small clique of powerful players who have longevity and rare items that no one can complete with and then eventually PVP becomes no fun to play (except for the small clique who dominate) and then everyone leaves PVP. Including the powerful small clique when they have no more competition (newbies, green beans, victims to get their jolllies feeding off the decimation or cattle fodder of new PVP players) they leave calling the game lame.
I think AGS has something special going with this game and the healing is the secret ingredient that will keep PVP exciting and slightly unpredictable in Wars, OPR, 3v3, etc. If you actually nerf Healing the way the DPS want, it would kill PVP and perhaps even kill the game eventually. Sometimes I wonder if AGS is kind of keeping this way of letting healers survive in PVP as a “trade secret” or something. (as they never really comment or respond, lol)
So I would give it a try to keep on healing! Don’t pay attention to folks in the forums that say “Wow, this is the first thread I have seen that healing is underpowered, gee, all the post are about healing being OP” Those people are daily DPS type posters that should try to be a healer for like 3 months straight… You never see healers posting that they should be nerfed, haha. The DPS post like they play, they just "hammer or spam " the Healers OP posts daily as fast as the can, like their playstyle in New World, mash those keys, left click crazy lol. I don’t post much but I see the same names either keep posting new or keep old threads going (stealth bumping).
Also, you will notice that even though everyone’s statements are really opinion only, you will be attacked, called names, etc. just for posting or disagreeing. Hard to have a civil discussion, lol. I bet I get some choice replies on my post here.
