Shield Healer after the healer patch: almost dead as a main build

[kpihuss]

NOTICE: This is a long post full of calculations, numbers, and statistical data that may be boring, but it's necessary to include it.

Hello.

I wanted to return to the topic of Shield Warrior Priest and melee shield healers after the healer patch, but this time using killboard data instead of only personal impressions.

The conclusion is not that nobody uses a shield. That would be false.

The conclusion is more specific: Shield WP still appears in the data, but it is practically dead as a main build.

And this matters because Shield WP was not simply “a healer with a shield”. It was a melee healer. Its identity was accepting more risk — playing close, depending on having a target, suffering kiting, punts, CC, direct pressure and heal debuffs — in exchange for being able to heal meaningfully when it managed to stay in melee.

That was the trade-off.

Now it seems the risk is still there, but the reward no longer compensates.

And we cannot forget that the server has a serious healer shortage overall, and that this makes the game more boring for everyone. Making shield healers playable again is therefore important for everyone.

How the data was calculated

The killboard does not directly say what weapon or equipment each character is using. That is why this analysis does not try to read equipment, but instead detects build signals from the damage breakdown by ability.

For WP, signals such as these were used:

• Sigmar’s Will as a safe shield signal.

• Sigmar’s Radiance as a historical shield signal before the patch.

• Hammer of Sigmar, Bludgeon and Divine Impact as 2H signals.

For DoK, signals such as these were used:

• Khaine’s Encouragement as a safe shield signal.

• Transfer Essence as a historical shield signal before the patch.

• Drowning in Blood, Feel Sacrifice and Wracking Agony as dual-wield signals.

After the 19/03/2025 healer patch, Sigmar’s Radiance and Transfer Essence are no longer automatically counted as safe shield signals if they appear alone. They become “possible/probable shield”, unless they appear together with other compatible melee signals.

This makes the post-patch method conservative. It is not artificially inflating the number of shield characters.

It is also important to understand the difference between “used shield” and “dominant shield”.

A single shield signal does not make a character a dominant Shield WP or Shield DoK. To be a dominant build, shield has to be the main pattern of that character’s visible offensive participations. If the character has signals split between shield, probable shield and 2H/dual, it can be classified as mixed. If the signal is too small, it remains a punctual signal.

So the important number is not “used shield at some point”.

The important number is “dominant shield”.

Main data

In the pre-patch block, from 01/03/2025 to 19/03/2025, 804,850 kills were analysed, with 99.96% damage coverage.

Combined, WP + DoK had:

• 2,644 detected characters.

• 214 characters with a safe shield signal.

• 172 characters with dominant shield.

• 6.51% dominant shield.

• 12.02% safe offensive shield usage.

In the post-patch block, from 01/05/2026 to 15/05/2026, 574,534 kills were analysed, with 97.75% damage coverage. This block includes all levels, not only 40+.

Combined, WP + DoK now have:

• 1,678 detected characters.

• 191 characters with a safe shield signal.

• 52 characters with dominant shield.

• 3.1% dominant shield.

• 7.85% safe offensive shield usage.

This is the key part:

• Dominant shield drops from 6.51% to 3.1%.

• That is a relative drop of approximately 52.4%.

• Safe offensive shield usage drops from 12.02% to 7.85%.

• That is a relative drop of approximately 34.7%.

For WP specifically:

• Pre-patch: 72 out of 1,504 WPs were dominant shield, or 4.79%.

• Post-patch: 30 out of 953 WPs are dominant shield, or 3.15%.

For DoK:

• Pre-patch: 100 out of 1,140 DoKs were dominant shield, or 8.77%.

• Post-patch: 22 out of 725 DoKs are dominant shield, or 3.03%.

This does not show a healthy build. It shows a build that still leaves signals on the killboard, but that very few players use as a main build.

SC and RvR

There is also a change in where shield usage appears.

Pre-patch, WP + DoK characters with safe shield were distributed like this:

• SC only: 12.15%.

• RvR only: 22.90%.

• SC + RvR: 64.95%.

Post-patch:

• SC only: 4.19%.

• RvR only: 34.55%.

• SC + RvR: 61.26%.

This suggests that the remaining shield usage has partially shifted away from pure scenario play and more towards RvR or mixed activity.

It does not mean shield only exists in RvR. But it does seem clear that it has lost a lot of weight as an SC-only option.

Why I think this is a problem

Shield WP still has the problems of a melee healer:

• It needs to be close.

• It needs to have a target.

• It suffers from kiting.

• It suffers from punts.

• It suffers from CC.

• It suffers from heal debuffs.

• It suffers more pressure from playing close to the frontline.

All of that is fine. A melee healer should have counters.

The problem is that, when it manages to overcome those counters and stay in melee, the reward no longer seems sufficient.

If you build defensively, you survive a bit better, but you do not heal enough to justify the slot.

If you build offensively, the lifetaps improve, but you are too fragile to stay in melee consistently.

If you build something in between, you are neither durable enough nor useful enough as a healer.

The practical result is that many players simply stop using it as a main build.

I am not asking for it to heal more than a backline healer without conditions.

I am not asking to remove its counters.

What I am saying is that, if Shield WP has all the risks of a melee healer, then it needs a real reward when it manages to play as a melee healer.

Right now, the data suggests that this reward either does not exist or does not compensate enough.

What could be reviewed

• Reduce the RF cost of Sigmar’s Will so the gameplay loop becomes more sustainable: 50RF

• Review the real value of lifetaps when the WP manages to stay in melee.

• Review whether heal debuffs punish too heavily a build that already has to expose itself much more than a backline healer.

• Remove the Healing hand heal increase by Strenght. We are not casters

• Keep clear counters such as kiting, punts, CC, lack of targets and coordinated pressure.

• Avoid turning it into an immortal build, but make the risk worth taking again.

Conclusion

The killboard cannot prove absolute causality. It cannot directly read the exact equipment of each character, nor isolate every external factor.

But it can detect strong usage signals.

And when punctual signals are separated from dominant build, the result is clear:

• Shield WP still exists.

• Shield DoK still exists.

• But as main builds, they are at a very low point.

• Only 52 out of 1,678 WP + DoK appear as dominant shield post-patch.

• That is only 3.1%.

To me, this does not describe a healthy build that is simply hard to play.

It describes a build that is practically dead as a main option.

It does need to have a real function again. If the design intends it to be a melee healer, then it must be able to heal meaningfully when it manages to play as a melee healer.

Right now, the data suggests that this is not happening.

[lemao]

Shield healers should have never been introduced into the game in the first hand.

[gersy]

shield healer is a touchy subject and almost impossible to balance. not sure it was ever really a "main build" outside of certain content. they always dance a really fine line between gamebreaking overpowered and niche/offmeta/undesirable depending on the content. what remains also is the issue that they are largely countered core game mechanics like parry/block, punts and other CC and kiting. this is why they are best played in content where you can begin to eliminate some of those variables, such as playing it in instanced content where kiting the shield healer is less likely to occur or where your tanks can afford to guard swap to you without fearing that one of the dps might die. as with many classes and builds in this game most players just don't know how to play it, build it or are trying to force it in to situations where it isn't desirable which results in them condemning a build in their mind.

it's not pug friendly because it requires a level of game knowledge/comprehension/skill that is not present in most players, both on the part of the shield healer and his team. shield requires your party's tanks to be good with guard swaps and defensive CC, requires your dps to kite and avoid damage to compensate for when the shield healer is punted/disarmed/cannot connect with lifetaps and requires your healing partner to be on point to compensate for aforementioned situations as well. all of these things are highly non-conducive to the way most players engage with the game at the end of the day.

in the past they ruled in low player count, instanced pvp situations such as 6v6, city and inhouse/gvg fights. a lot of this was due to their ability to dish out large amounts of damage and the fact that lifetaps ignored heal debuffs. both of those things have been remedied for the most part - leaving the shield healers in a lesser state in some ways compared to before. despite that fact shield healer is still being used in the highest level of organized gameplay on a semi-regular basis.

i've seen both dok and wp shield played in multiple 24v24 organized city and inhouse 12v12/18v18 matches in the last year - and believe me that in the right hands and right situation it is still very playable. particularly the WP, due to the strength of their m1 and sigmar's shield ability, which are absolutely ruling over the healer meta in highest tier organized equal player count gameplay. in those matches where i have seen shield healers, usually they are among the least deaths and have a healthy amount of both healing and damage. additionally, from the perspective of a dps in single target party, it felt quite hard to score kills on them compared to traditional ranged healers, especially the light armor healers. mostly it felt like an unkillable mosquito whom you'd just ignore most of the time outside of punting him away on your channel/morale drops to lower his healing for a bit.

the problem with buffing or altering it further is if you tune it to an extent where pugs can easily play it, or in a way that it becomes genuinely viable in largescale, then it will most certainly go back to being gamebreaking in the hands of top tier players and in instanced content. all this being said probably there are some tweaks that can be made to it to make it a bit more accessible.

[nocturnalguest]

Well, its pretty hard to comprehend this analysis ill be honest. Details are lacking, for me its hard to figure what those numbers are.

How did you parse this data, what was the alghoritm exactly, why didnt you use a combination of kill data that is "pure" (count only kill record which contains pure marks that show exactly that target has been hit by "shield" healer, lame data i know, but less shady when what i see here) and why didnt you cut off the rest (e.g. cases where there was single ability that cant be categorized as clear "shield" healer mark)? Idea to try to count who is "shield" healer is lame imo, what exactly it will tell? People run shield rarier nowdays? That is known. So you parse 1+ million of kills within very limited timeframe to show just that, an obvious well-known fact. I believe its very important to breakdown shield healers "presence" into clear categories, e.g. show that post patch there are no longer so meta in 6v6 (but its an issue of 6v6 as scene has been way more active back in a day), rarier played in regular scs and show difference between how they are present in orvr. That would be more useful if you would clean out game environment.
Also im generally curious how did you figure "used shield at some point" vs "dominant shield", e.g. how did you define pre-patch 172 "shield" healers, also "safe offensive shield usage" what is that exactly?

As for another well justified "buff shield WP/DoK" thread (as they truly could use some buffs and QoL, no doubt) my suggestion to improve them hasnt change since this post here:
viewtopic.php?p=591500#p591500
Also considering itemization thingy started, i believe hard lobby to make them "hybrid" healer (so give them more willpower so they can cast castable heals more effectively and thus negate their "downtime" when they cant connect into melee) is most "balanced" concept considering absolutely everything currently going on. Its clearly a concept that was a goal for rework, Benediction/KE is a clear prove for that design. Especially the part Gersy highlighted about them being completely broken in different game environments played by players of high skills, so pure melee dmg vs heal ratio is out of the question for buffs because its impossible to balance out taking into account RoR combat mechanics (but however its for sure possible to tweak melee dmg/heal ratio to a point that will make it more good, at the moment i agree, its way too many efforts as shield healer for medium gains, any player gonna do just better as book/chalice with lower efforts).

[kpihuss]

Well, its pretty hard to comprehend this analysis ill be honest. Details are lacking, for me its hard to figure what those numbers are.

How did you parse this data, what was the alghoritm exactly, why didnt you use a combination of kill data that is "pure" (count only kill record which contains pure marks that show exactly that target has been hit by "shield" healer, lame data i know, but less shady when what i see here) and why didnt you cut off the rest (e.g. cases where there was single ability that cant be categorized as clear "shield" healer mark)? Idea to try to count who is "shield" healer is lame imo, what exactly it will tell? People run shield rarier nowdays? That is known. So you parse 1+ million of kills within very limited timeframe to show just that, an obvious well-known fact. I believe its very important to breakdown shield healers "presence" into clear categories, e.g. show that post patch there are no longer so meta in 6v6 (but its an issue of 6v6 as scene has been way more active back in a day), rarier played in regular scs and show difference between how they are present in orvr. That would be more useful if you would clean out game environment.
Also im generally curious how did you figure "used shield at some point" vs "dominant shield", e.g. how did you define pre-patch 172 "shield" healers, also "safe offensive shield usage" what is that exactly?
).

Well, all the data has been exported from the killboard by mining the data with an HTML file I created using the GPT chat.

If you want, I can send it to you so you can extract the data yourself from your computer, but I should warn you that it took 4-5 hours of searching per week in the game.

Before the patch, the only way to know for sure if the WP was shield-based was by using exclusive abilities like Sigmar's Radiance, which required the use of a shield to activate them.

However, after the patch, all shield healer abilities, except for Sigmar's Will, could be used with books or two-handed, so the certainty that the death occurred with a hit from a shield healer decreased since other builds could use those abilities.

So, the way to increase the number of shield-based Warrior priests detected after the patch was by introducing a rule that if a Warrior priests had used Sigmar's Radiance (which can be used with a shield or a book), along with another shield-based skill (Sigmar's Vision, Sigmar's Fist, Sigmar's Shield, or Benediction), that Warrior priests would then be considered shield-based, and not two-handed or book-based. This may have slightly increased the number of false positives, thus increasing the number of actual Warrior priests after the patch, but it seemed to me the most appropriate way to do it.

What “dominant shield” means

Dominant shield is calculated per character from visible offensive participations.

For each character, the tool counts:

• Total offensive participations as attacker.

• Safe shield participations.

• Possible/probable shield participations.

• Confirmed 2H/dual participations.

Then it calculates the percentage of each category.
A category is considered meaningful only if it passes a minimum threshold:

• At least 10% of offensive participations, or

• At least 3 participations and at least 5%, or

• For very low-sample characters, if the character has 5 or fewer offensive participations, at least 40%.

If no category passes those thresholds, the character is not classified as dominant. It becomes unknown or punctual signal.

If several categories are meaningful and no one clearly dominates, the character is classified as mixed.

So a single shield hit does not make someone a dominant Shield WP / Shield DoK.


About the "safe offensive shield usage" it is the ammount ok skills used by a 100% WP/DOK shield on the period.

[nocturnalguest]

Aha, ok, i got it. Thanks for clarification!

Nice analysis then, however as for conclusions go and taking into account your vision you shared before we can agree to disagree as im not so much into strict "melee" healer and i believe design wise the idea was more "hybrid" as it was supposed to also use cast heals to compensate for moments of downtime.