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.
