Shield Healers reworked version is bad in every way

[Farrul]

I have little experience with a shield healer but i shall only add this to the discussion: ''Shield'' WP'' is more or less a none-existent spec, i'm saying this from the perspective of playing on the server for years, they don't exist ( relatively speaking ).

That alone should be enough of an argument for the balanceteam to consider that if a spec isn't being played, there is something off about it that keeps the playerbase away. On the other hand book(salvation WP) is likely the most common healer in the whole game(counting both factions). These two ''healing'' specs seems to be the antithesis of eachother. One popularity itself and the other '' red headed stepchild'' of the game.

[Kylashandra]

I've played shield specs on both sides ever since their release.

After the Healer patch and the "new" direct heal components being introduced to the spec, it made the spec a confusing mess.
I've run extensive parse tests with various amount of main stat (Str), and tried alot of tactic setups.
The low STR setup that was suggested above would really only work in warband settings (and tbh running shield in WB settings is masochism because there are far easier and more efficient ways to heal in WB settings as a doK or WP)
Where sWP/DoK shone before the Heal patch was small scale / SC / PvE. It used to be a little too strong for ranked gameplay and was very hard to face in roaming settings paired with a tank. It was also king in PvE, outhealing the other healers by a large margin.

Nowadays :

- in PvE, especially LV with boss dishing out way higher hits than in the previous dungeons, you still need 800+ STR and a fair amount of crit for efficiency. It is still a strong PvE spec this way, able to dish out alot of spam group heal and some very decent ST heal with rend soul / divine assault or even divine strike/consume essence. But it still took a bad hit compared to pre patch (lost about 30 to 40% healing output). Shield is still the best way to heal as a DoK / WP in dungeons because the heal values on the regular heal spec are too low for quite a few fights in LV / BS ( unless very well geared), compared to the 2 other healer classes (having 2 chalice/book WP/DOK in LV is almost always a bad run).

- in small scale / SC, the situation is a little bit different. Both classes also took a big hit. Unlike DoKs, WP are suffering for the lack of parry/shield strikethrough, although they can achieve higher WS through tactics. Both class lost some mobility when the channeled group shield + mobility buff disappeared. The Heal debuff now able to affect the direct heal part of their skills means you still have to rely on high STR to be able to heal through, and for me DoK is yet a bit ahead of WP thanks for his Khaine's Withdrawal M2 (that I would take any time ahead of Rampaging siphon for small scale) which he can rely on to bypass most of the debuffs / heal debuffs in a critical situation. All in all, with low mobility, the fact that there are alot more CC's in game thanks to the decision to even out all tools on tanks, you spend your time snared and have very few positioning options compared to range healers and have most of the times to chose between hiting on a pet / a cloth mDPS if there is any around (and they are most of the time guarded / in the core of the melee ball which you want to avoid) or be useless trying to heal on a tank.

I usually decide what spec to use in order to be the most efficient at a specific role/content type. That's why I would only recommend shield spec for PvE / Dungeons nowadays. If you want to do any other type of content, either go full DPS or full Heal. It's a sad because that spec used to be fun in PvP as well, but it's just a big hassle with low return these days.

[leftayparxoun]

To preface this, I have never played sDOK/sWP nor do I have any opinion on their performance in PvE.
I have, however, ran the calcs on them so what I'm going to talk about is basically an extension of that.

The current state of sDOK/sWP is a quite peculiar one.
When the healer rework first happened (around 11 months ago) they went from being:

• amazing/broken 6v6 healers who also dealt decently good damage

and

• conditionally good wb healers with meager damage contribution

to basically becoming mediocre group healers with bad damage for both 6v6 and wbs.

DISCLAIMER: In the following paragraphs you will find my interpretation of the happenings regarding those specs and, in no way, shape or form, is it intended to represent the official opinions of the balance team.

That first update lead to a complete identity loss for sDOK/sWP. Excluding PvE, shield healers post that initial healer rework patch were strictly worse than their regular heal specs in basically every content in the game; worse heals, needing to connect with enemies to heal, bad damage.

The first indication that something was off came from the class underperforming everywhere. Despite recieving a couple buffs in a followup patch, 2 months after their rework, shield DOK and WP continued existing without pretty much any presense anywhere. Something was evidently wrong; the specs had lost their place in the META and with it being the only place (besides PvE) where they shined, their identity was also compromised. The balance team, realising that and while observing that the specs were clearly underperforming, took the next logical step which was to actually adjust them with a (new) purpose in mind. Instead of leaning back towards the 6v6 angle that shield healers were known for, the decision was made to basically turn shield specs into a unique kind of warband healer. I'd speculate this angle was chosen so as to avoid turn those specs in 6v6 monsters that would once again terorize/warp ranked scenarios, but perhaps also as a way to reconsile the newer version of the classes with the AOE healing capabilities they once had in dual wield/2h.

Regardless of why, the decision seems to have been taken to turn the shield specs into wb healers. As mentioned before, their lackluster healing (unless they went above and beyond in building offensive stats to the detriment of their survivability) effectively made them bad party healers. So as not to majorly buff them in any other content other than warbands/orvr, the only possible change (with little coding effort) was to provide them with AOE out-of-party (oop) heals.

On September 12th 2025, about half a year after the initial healer rework patch, both shield specs got their lifetap heals slightly buffed and their big spender transformed from being a big party heal to a big oop heal 20ft around their defensive target. That effectively meant that shield healers became actually warband-viable* , conditionally surpassing both Shaman and AM for the spot of the best oop healers.
What this is also meant though, is that these specs lost even more party healing capabilities (big spender no longer heals their whole party if they are spread out).
In my eyes, this sealed their identity transition and is the reason why people who attempt to play shield specs like they did before their rework will find little to no success with it. The specs are basically now only compatible with blob/wb healing.
It was also at that point when I decided to actually make a proper shield DOK section in our wb-guide (you can find it in my signature if curious).

At this point I think that people trying to make sDOK/sWP work in anything under 18v18 are basically going against the present spec design. While I do sympathise with them, I feel like they are banging their heads against the wall to try and make it work (similarly to how solo players attempt to enjoy their playstyle in orvr).

Finally, I'd like to give my 2 cents for the actual viability of the specs in the content that they seemingly have been designed for.
I do think they are perfectly viable. However, this comes with the BIG caveat that they can basically only work in proper organized warbands. Shield healers offer amazing oop heals but in return they have to nearly completely give up healing on the move/without an offensive target, and their (strictly) party heals are lacking.


This is a fair tradeoff in an organized setting where the rest of the healers are aware of that limitation and can tend to the shield healer's party while repositioning (with HoTs, etc.) or even in case a guard can be provided to that shield healer (ideally not direly needed elsewhere due to having a rdps in that party).
That is not the case though for your average warband. The shield healer will not recieve guard-swaps, nor will the rest of the healers pay any attention (or perhaps have the UI or skill) necessary to make up for the shield healer's disadvantages.

In the end it is fully warband-viable in my opinion but, with properly organized warbands becoming rarer and rarer nowdays, it is up to debate whether a transition from the old shield healer version to the current one did actually improve the average player's experience with it.


P.S. There is no reason (imo) to spec the left tree AOE oop heal channel as a crutch for Forts/Keeps. Simply keep a regular heal set + weapons in your bag and just swap tactics and gear when forced into such situations (I think I also advise such in our guide).

P.P.S. Viability of shield specs in PvE is tied to a) their group healing capabilities and b) to their damage contribution. Comparing their current state to pre-rework it is evident that both of these aspects have been nerfed. It might still be enough to justify their position in PvE dungeon runs, etc. but I have no experience with that.

[nocturnalguest]

I do think they are perfectly viable. However, this comes with the BIG caveat that they can basically only work in proper organized warbands. Shield healers offer amazing oop heals but in return they have to nearly completely give up healing on the move/without an offensive target, and their (strictly) party heals are lacking.

This is a bit of exaggeration about viability, even assuming highly organised orvr. Yeah, you can play one if supported propely and do just fine but amount of efforts put is inadequate vs efficiency.

I really like design they have had in mind, mixing casted and melee heals leaning into providing absorbs (cant clearly conclude if its overally cool or not to have so many absorbs we have atm, different topic for discussion), i believe this could be further improved. I wouldnt be so out-and-out about giving up healing on a move, KE and benediction obviously do just that, you are supposed to be playing with casted heals but numbers are just not there.

Imo, something to consider for their QoL gameplay:
- change itemization of their snb sets, slap some willpower into it (maybe change some bonus), if it would be possible to get ~500-600 willpower on top of rest stats being same it would make them high ceiling high reward build for people who dont faceroll on keyboard;
- if itemization is out of question (like it is for years) add some core spammable willpower selfbuff (20 sec 20 cd) tied into shield that doesnt demand you to hit something.

[Kylashandra]

Regardless of why, the decision was taken to turn the shield specs into wb healers. As mentioned before, their lackluster healing (unless they went above and beyond in building offensive stats to the detriment of their survivability) effectively made them bad party healers. So as not to majorly buff them in any other content other than warbands/orvr, the only possible change (with little coding effort) was to provide them with AOE out-of-party (oop) heals.

The change on Khaine force / Sigmar's will did not turn the shield specs into warband healers really... it's a 20ft range, it needs to be carefully targetted in the middle of a blob in a fraction of second to have any efficiency, it requires a "soft" target to hit on. It requires conditions that can rarely be attained in warband settings (even less in siege). It's just a plain nerf on the (previously) group heal.
Shield spec has never performed in WB settings because it requires alot of setup (guard / target availability / very fast reflexes for tracking / targetting in the middle of a blob) and it never will whatever changes may be brought to it compared to traditional healers who can position easily and dish out higher group heal value in the same amount of time. Your tanks already have cloth/middle armor DPS to protect in the middle of the blob, you don't want to add an additional target who requires a full time guard to be semi useful.

Also not every spec has to be viable in warband play, shield spec was designed around small scale, in a very reasonable way (as I stated above, you don't want to add a front lane healer in a warband setting) and there is 0 reason to try and turn it into something it cannot be design-wise.

[live4treasure]

To preface this, I have never played sDOK/sWP nor do I have any opinion on their performance in PvE.
I have, however, ran the calcs on them so what I'm going to talk about is basically an extension of that.

The current state of sDOK/sWP is a quite peculiar one.
When the healer rework first happened (around 11 months ago) they went from being:

• amazing/broken 6v6 healers who also dealt decently good damage

and

• conditionally good wb healers with meager damage contribution

to basically becoming mediocre group healers with bad damage for both 6v6 and wbs.

DISCLAIMER: In the following paragraphs you will find my interpretation of the happenings regarding those specs and, in no way, shape or form, is it intended to represent the official opinions of the balance team.

That first update lead to a complete identity loss for sDOK/sWP. Excluding PvE, shield healers post that initial healer rework patch were strictly worse than their regular heal specs in basically every content in the game; worse heals, needing to connect with enemies to heal, bad damage.

The first indication that something was off came from the class underperforming everywhere. Despite recieving a couple buffs in a followup patch, 2 months after their rework, shield DOK and WP continued existing without pretty much any presense anywhere. Something was evidently wrong; the specs had lost their place in the META and with it being the only place (besides PvE) where they shined, their identity was also compromised. The balance team, realising that and while observing that the specs were clearly underperforming, took the next logical step which was to actually adjust them with a (new) purpose in mind. Instead of leaning back towards the 6v6 angle that shield healers were known for, the decision was made to basically turn shield specs into a unique kind of warband healer. I'd speculate this angle was chosen so as to avoid turn those specs in 6v6 monsters that would once again terorize/warp ranked scenarios, but perhaps also as a way to reconsile the newer version of the classes with the AOE healing capabilities they once had in dual wield/2h.

Regardless of why, the decision seems to have been taken to turn the shield specs into wb healers. As mentioned before, their lackluster healing (unless they went above and beyond in building offensive stats to the detriment of their survivability) effectively made them bad party healers. So as not to majorly buff them in any other content other than warbands/orvr, the only possible change (with little coding effort) was to provide them with AOE out-of-party (oop) heals.

On September 12th 2025, about half a year after the initial healer rework patch, both shield specs got their lifetap heals slightly buffed and their big spender transformed from being a big party heal to a big oop heal 20ft around their defensive target. That effectively meant that shield healers became actually warband-viable* , conditionally surpassing both Shaman and AM for the spot of the best oop healers.
What this is also meant though, is that these specs lost even more party healing capabilities (big spender no longer heals their whole party if they are spread out).
In my eyes, this sealed their identity transition and is the reason why people who attempt to play shield specs like they did before their rework will find little to no success with it. The specs are basically now only compatible with blob/wb healing.
It was also at that point when I decided to actually make a proper shield DOK section in our wb-guide (you can find it in my signature if curious).

At this point I think that people trying to make sDOK/sWP work in anything under 18v18 are basically going against the present spec design. While I do sympathise with them, I feel like they are banging their heads against the wall to try and make it work (similarly to how solo players attempt to enjoy their playstyle in orvr).

Finally, I'd like to give my 2 cents for the actual viability of the specs in the content that they seemingly have been designed for.
I do think they are perfectly viable. However, this comes with the BIG caveat that they can basically only work in proper organized warbands. Shield healers offer amazing oop heals but in return they have to nearly completely give up healing on the move/without an offensive target, and their (strictly) party heals are lacking.


This is a fair tradeoff in an organized setting where the rest of the healers are aware of that limitation and can tend to the shield healer's party while repositioning (with HoTs, etc.) or even in case a guard can be provided to that shield healer (ideally not direly needed elsewhere due to having a rdps in that party).
That is not the case though for your average warband. The shield healer will not recieve guard-swaps, nor will the rest of the healers pay any attention (or perhaps have the UI or skill) necessary to make up for the shield healer's disadvantages.

In the end it is fully warband-viable in my opinion but, with properly organized warbands becoming rarer and rarer nowdays, it is up to debate whether a transition from the old shield healer version to the current one did actually improve the average player's experience with it.


P.S. There is no reason (imo) to spec the left tree AOE oop heal channel as a crutch for Forts/Keeps. Simply keep a regular heal set + weapons in your bag and just swap tactics and gear when forced into such situations (I think I also advise such in our guide).

P.P.S. Viability of shield specs in PvE is tied to a) their group healing capabilities and b) to their damage contribution. Comparing their current state to pre-rework it is evident that both of these aspects have been nerfed. It might still be enough to justify their position in PvE dungeon runs, etc. but I have no experience with that.

I want to add to this that essentially the shield healer's viability boils down to CITY. In other words, 24v24 matchups. It becomes less and less viable larger the enemy blob in RVR becomes, and the more you have to move around the battlefield. They are quite niche in that regard.

I still however believe that people overblow the specs actual downsides in this thread, although KPI's detailed breakdown has a lot of merit.

As it is currently created, it will not be viable in ORVR. The reason is because with the amount of damage you could be taking there, guardswapping to you from someone else, very often means someone else dies. You are also that much more prone to getting caught and killed, compared to a healer than can stay at range, and sometimes the incoming damage is such that it doesn't matter how tanky you are. You could put a ranged dps that plays at a distance that doesn't require guard in his group, which then allows the SWP/SDOK to receive that guard for ORVR, but you are still vulnerable to outgoing healdebuffs and thus with the press of a single button, your healing, whether out of party or not, will become less than a proper healers.

This is why this whole guardswap dependency works ONLY in a 24v24 context.

[DirkDaring]

I`ll have to try it out later, been lazy, however has anyone tried 5 heal sov, with 3 piece off sov, mainly the off sov shoulders, belt, and chest for block, as well as the str, mainly for the wounds, and the rest normal heal sov, so a 5 /3 set. using shield on wp for the access to albites requiring shield. This is mostly a Hybrid spec, which seems the direction they are aiming at with the latest changes, mixing casted, and melee heals.

You lose access to divine mend, and tome regen, but gain sigmar will, benediction, with tactics, discpline, exalted, shield of faith, and fueled fury, Fueled fury + Smite to make up for tome fury regen, with all the fluff damage being thrown around, fueled should proc quite often, and with exalted+ shield faith, as always your heals will be boosted.

Granted this is not a true grace melee healer, but more of a hybrid, I had a 96 wp on live and used to play around with this using a 2H hammer with healing stats on it on live at times, was fun, compared to just hiding in the back all the time.

My wp here has been 81 for 4 years , don`t play him often, but may try this later this week, see if it makes playing wp fun again.

[Panzer80]

All I know is they were way OP before the overhaul patch. I used to guard a shield priest on my SM and it was toxic af. I hope we aren't complaining just because we wanna be OP.

[kpihuss]

On September 12th 2025, about half a year after the initial healer rework patch, both shield specs got their lifetap heals slightly buffed and their big spender transformed from being a big party heal to a big oop heal 20ft around their defensive target. That effectively meant that shield healers became actually warband-viable* , conditionally surpassing both Shaman and AM for the spot of the best oop healers.
What this is also meant though, is that these specs lost even more party healing capabilities (big spender no longer heals their whole party if they are spread out).
In my eyes, this sealed their identity transition and is the reason why people who attempt to play shield specs like they did before their rework will find little to no success with it. The specs are basically now only compatible with blob/wb healing.
It was also at that point when I decided to actually make a proper shield DOK section in our wb-guide (you can find it in my signature if curious).

At this point I think that people trying to make sDOK/sWP work in anything under 18v18 are basically going against the present spec design. While I do sympathise with them, I feel like they are banging their heads against the wall to try and make it work (similarly to how solo players attempt to enjoy their playstyle in orvr).

Finally, I'd like to give my 2 cents for the actual viability of the specs in the content that they seemingly have been designed for.
I do think they are perfectly viable. However, this comes with the BIG caveat that they can basically only work in proper organized warbands. Shield healers offer amazing oop heals but in return they have to nearly completely give up healing on the move/without an offensive target, and their (strictly) party heals are lacking.

But the thing is, you were trying to fix something that was not broken before the February 2025 patch.

The previous version of Divine Strike already did exactly the same thing as the current Sigmar’s Wyll: “Heals all allies within 20 feet of the defensive target.” The differences are that before it dealt spiritual damage, cost 40 RF, and hit 3 enemies, whereas now it only hits a single enemy (so even though you can still easily keep your AoE detaunt, the attack can also be blocked/parried, which means you heal nothing), it costs 80 RF, and it is no longer spiritual damage, so now you need armor penetration. Right now you heal 1/3 of what you used to, while paying triple the RF cost.

Going back to how the spec was before the patch was (and still is) the perfect solution: easy and quick, while restoring that warband healer role it was already able to perform before the 2025 patch.

The impression I get is that the team wanted to change everything so that nothing would really change, but they ended up leaving it much worse than it was.

Once you are RR70+, grab that khaine's refreshment and you'll have no problem healing in sieges.

Sieges??? Why would you ever be shield spec on siege? There is 0 benefit over chalice in siege.

A WP on shield on a siege was a healing-beast on push. If he can take a guard from a RDPS he was able to do HUGE heals on the door (20feet AOE OOP 1,5-2k per tick, even 4-5k per tick if u use full sov for this momment and use the last skill). He does more heals than all the Book WP using Martyr's blessing on door

But as I said before: the advantage of having that healing during the push meant that during the rest of the siege you could barely heal at all. A big advantage in exchange for a big drawback.

[Keula]

it costs 80 RF, and it is no longer spiritual damage, so now you need armor penetration. Right now you heal 1/3 of what you used to, while paying triple the RF cost.

Yea the new shield spec isn't the greatest, but at least get the numbers right. 80 cost one is not 1/3rd of the heal of the old triple hit, nor is 40x3=80(tbh, I can't remember if it cost 40 or 35) last time I checked, the static heal component of the new one alone is 900+ and can crit. Sure with healdebuff and the old triple hit critting every hit and not bellowed nor hitting guarded/detaunted targets and the new one not critting, it's about 1/3rd total, but that's a rather specific one innit, could take situation where the attack get's parried now it's 0(ok sometimes it still healed a little while being parried, it made no sense) heal vs 900+.

Once you are RR70+, grab that khaine's refreshment and you'll have no problem healing in sieges.

Sieges??? Why would you ever be shield spec on siege? There is 0 benefit over chalice in siege.

A WP on shield on a siege was a healing-beast on push. If he can take a guard from a RDPS he was able to do HUGE heals on the door (20feet AOE OOP 1,5-2k per tick, even 4-5k per tick if u use full sov for this momment and use the last skill). He does more heals than all the Book WP using Martyr's blessing on door

1stly, you messed you're quotes, the Sieges??? comment is from me.
Secondly you say "was" referring to the old triple hit as seen by the 4-5k heal quote, while that comment is not about the old spec rather the new one. Which is less swingy in terms of heal, but no where near those highs. Yea you can off group heal still, assuming you're in range and not stuck in traffic, but the value is not that much more than normal group heal.
Ok maybe it has more merit to having 1 shield healer in the blob on on an organized wb than I originally gave credit to thinking about it a bit more, like it's not completely useless, just very specialized on what/where to use it.

However, I never used the the sov 8pc in any real content and umm... It only works for auto attacks now. I'm 97% sure it used to be abilites as well, I'm not crazy right? You even made that 4-5k notion, like it must've worked otherwise you wouldn't have made that. So now it's completely useless.