Warhammer Online
https://returnofreckoning.com/forum/
Mortgrimm wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 1:04 pm I really hope the devs take all the really good suggestions on board and think about a "Shield re-patch". I enjoyed this build until the second patch so much and i´m not alone. Would be nice to get the shield build back on track.
I appreciate the note, but I don’t think the “gameplay is fine” conclusion matches what we’re seeing in the playerbase. Post-patch, shield healer representation in RvR/scenarios is close to nonexistent. That kind of adoption drop usually signals more than just numbers—it signals that the loop (risk/reward, reliability, responsiveness) no longer feels comparable to the previous version. I’m glad you’ve suggested numerical tweaks, but I believe the gameplay/feel is also a core issue here.Rydiak wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 4:25 pm Just to throw in my two cents here, I feel the gameplay is fine (if not improved from how it was before) but I have suggested a couple numerical tweaks to the balance team which I hope they will agree with.
That’s why we shield healers played the spec.Rydiak wrote: Mon Mar 02, 2026 5:07 pm Grace was extremely good at only a couple things before and absolutely trash everywhere else.
- Range healers do not need to invest at all in willpower through talismans in order to sustain their whole group. They can slot fully defensive talismans. Shield spec needs to slot strength, otherwise healing output is too weak to sustain a party.
As a result, shield spec, despite being in melee, has less defensive stats than range healing specs. This is I guess supposed to be "balanced out" by the block chances, but this is RNG defense compared to constant defenses : if you get unluncky, your health drops dramatically ; this RNG defense is also set to 0 as soon as an opponent is flanking you.
- Frontline healer should be the one stacking armor/toughness/wounds/initiative, yet if you do that, your healing output is so low you're always the weakest healer in scenarios (yes, I've tried to do that). This ends up as a different way of making you fragile, as you are unable to sustain even yourself.
- Because your defensive stats are low, you force a tank to put a guard on you, instead of a melee dps.
- Even with your strength investment through talismans, your damage output is low, now that tactics like Fanaticism or Divine Fury negatively impact your whole healing output. Also, even with full strength talismans, it cannot be said that you heal for more than range healers, you at best heal just as much as they do.
- There was one thing where shield specs were better at than range healers : spamming Divine Strike/Consume Essence would let you sustain your whole frontline in scenarios like Battle for Praag in a very efficient way. But these abilities were nerfed to single target healing, and this can no longer be done.
- It is far more draining to play as a frontline healer : you get controlled more often, you can easily get kited or bursted down, you have to make sure enemies are not flanking you to bypass your RNG defense, you also have to watch out UI frames and select each ally to use Divine Strike on him, you get countered by highly defensive or guarded targets and are constantly forced to try to find someone soft enough to attack. What do you get in exchange for enduring all of this ? Low damage, inconsistent defense, inconsistent healing output.
This gaps between frontline healers and backline healers seems to be both a problem of shield specs underperforming, and range specs overperforming. This week-end scenario is Caledoor Woods, there are Archmages and Shamans who spend the whole scenario sitting on the flag in the middle of the map, casting their heals, it is near impossible to kill them. It is almost as if backline healers were better frontliners because of how resistant they are, and how consistent their healing output is. Being able to play from range should imply in exchange a lower defense, but it is the opposite that happens.