Healers ask for dungeon leveling that's worth it, while others defend the open world

A healer who wants to level by healing dungeons says Forever has made that a slog. On the EU forums on 7 November, a player who has played since the original Burning Crusade, and healed since Ulduar, said they were leveling a Restoration Druid and getting "36 XP per mob in a dungeon. Thirty-six." Two other threads the same day asked for more dungeon experience too, and both drew players who think nothing needs to change.

What the healer is asking for

The request is narrower than its title. "I'm not asking for dungeon levelling to be the fastest or easiest way to reach 60," the player wrote. "I'm asking for it to be a worthwhile way to level." They suggested about 100 XP per mob, or giving bosses "a substantial chunk of XP", so that groups are rewarded for finishing a dungeon rather than farming its trash. They said they understood the worry about spellcleave groups abusing dungeon experience.

They also described the demand they see. List yourself for a dungeon as a healer, they wrote, and "within ten seconds you've got 15 invites and whispers flying at you." Out in the open world, they said, a healer's damage is too low to level comfortably. Later in the thread they put the argument as the difference between "viable" and "superior".

The case against changing it

The most persistent reply said nothing has been taken away: "Nobody has taken these choices from you. Just because it's not as effective as it was before doesn't mean that it's bad." The same poster said the healer really wanted dungeons to be superior again, and that the developers had said a month earlier they didn't want dungeon spam to be the preferred way to level. They didn't link that statement. Another reply said "Dungeon progression should be gear not levels." A third saw a deliberate trade: modern WoW pulls open-world players into group content, they argued, and Forever pulls group players into the open world.

Not everyone wanted all or nothing. One player said a smaller cut, such as 30% of the total, would have been fine, or experience moved onto bosses so people have a reason to stay to the end. As it is, they wrote, people leave once the boss with their item is down.

Is there really a healer shortage?

A separate thread, opened late that night, says healers are already scarce, even at low levels, and asks for a fix before it gets worse. Its replies don't agree. One healer said there are lots of healers on the Alliance RP server, and that they have to snipe groups or start their own. Another wrote: "Im a healer and im really glad for the changes to the xp of dungeons." One player expected dual specialization at level 40 to bring more healers and tanks; another answered that the gold is better spent on a mount for questing.

In a third thread, which asks for more mob experience in dungeons and opens with "give us a reason to run dungeons again", players couldn't even agree on the basic number. One said dungeon experience now matches questing. Another said it is about 20% of what questing or grinding normal mobs gives.

What these threads don't tell you

These are players' own reports. The 36 XP figure comes from one player on one character, and the invites and healer numbers are personal impressions, not measurements. No Blizzard staff replied in any of the three threads, and none of them cites a Blizzard plan to change dungeon experience. For what Blizzard's beta notes changed in October, here's how the dungeon quest XP cut works. We haven't measured dungeon experience in the game.