Dear Blizzard:

This is being posted on behalf of all healers in World of Warcraft, courtesy of the http://www.wowhealers.com community.

The concern raised by this community today is simple: The Honor system does not encourage healers to play as such, nor does it encourage DPS classes to seek the assistance of healers.

To clarify, allow us to demonstrate:

There is a hard ceiling on the number of honorable kills you can get from any target in a 24 hour day - approximately four kills per target. This maximum is applicable to individuals and groups equally (meaning you can't kill someone three times by yourself, then go on to get four group kills, or vice versa). There is no bonus to your Honor for being in a group.

For a DPS class, the scenario is thus: They are going to get honor points for the first four kills on a target. In a group, this can significantly limit the amount of honor they can get in a day. If an individual Mage gets his 4 kills against each of 40 opponents in an Alterac Valley Battleground, vs. splitting that same honor with a two, five, 10, or 50-man team, he will get more honor.

What this promotes is a situation where it is advantageous to work alone. Some may argue that organizational strategy will force players into raids, but this is rarely the case in Alterac Valley, and only occasionally the case in Warsong Gulch.

From a healer's perspective, this is a nightmare. Yes, in theory, a Priest can load up Warlock gear, respec straight Shadow, and try to nuke, but what of Priests who have not chosen that route? What of the players in search of teamwork, who wish to contribute by keeping their comrades alive?

There is a place for this, but the system actually discourages it.

To that end, we propose the following amendment to the Honor System:

In addition to the honor points earned from killing opponents, there would be a secondary pool of honor points only available through healing. This pool would have a hard cap per healer per day, as opposed to the hard cap per target of the damage system. An amount would have to be distinguished by the Blizzard developers - say, 10,000 honor points - that would be awarded at a 20% rate based on damage mitigated.

What this means is that any time any character heals or shields a friendly target, 20% of the damage healed/absorbed will be awarded to the healer in honor points. Overhealing and unnecessary shielding would not yield points - only effective healing is taken into consideration.

What this does is it gives healers a way to gain honor and put back into group scenarios. Suddenly, it is hugely advantageous to that same Mage to pick up a Priest, Druid, Paladin, or Shaman, because - lo and behold - while they are dropping targets for honor, every heal they receive is also benefitting them.

In the event that DPS classes still choose to solo, this gives healers a way to be at least marginally competitive. A healer would need to heal 50,000 points of damage to get 10,000 honor points, hard capped at that amount per day. This prevents healers from getting a separate advantage, in that there is no accurate way to determine diminishing returns on healing honor like there is on targets (the first heal is worth 100%, etc.). It requires significant effort on the part of the healer, but given that a healer can drop a 3,000 hp heal on a friendly target, a higher percentage would make it far too easy for the healer to gain that amount of honor. As is, perhaps 10% is a more accurate reflection of time in vs. honor out.

Without a change like this, Blizzard, you are effectively removing the healing classes from the group dynamics of organized PvP.