No-healer strategy returns to WoW’s Mythic+ dungeons despite Blizzard’s best efforts to nerf it

You thought the WoW Dragonflight Mythic+ meta was safe, didn’t you? 

Early on in the expansion’s second season, players have started to time Mythic+ dungeons without the assistance of a healer. The trend was first brought to light this season by WoW streamer Psybear, who timed a +24 Brackenhide Hollow key with his teammates. He also mentioned in a follow-up tweet that the group timed a +24 Halls of Infusion and +23 Neltharion’s Lair. 

The team comp that the group used to complete these three dungeons within their respective timers was as follows:

• Tank: Protection Paladin
• DPS: Shadow Priest
• DPS: Feral Druid
• DPS: Devastation Evoker
• DPS: Retribution Paladin

These developments didn’t start until late in season one of Dragonflight when players were successfully running zero-healer team compositions in their Mythic+ dungeons. The trend even made its way onto the pro stage, when no-healer compositions were featured in the Dragonflight season one Mythic Dungeon International that wrapped up in early April. 

The main constant between no-healer compositions in season one and season two is the usage of Protection Paladin as a tank. The specialization’s off-healing abilities are widely accepted as the best in the game as Protection Paladins can keep themselves alive without direct help from a healer thanks to the spec’s consistent uptime of defensive cooldowns and self-healing spells. Despite monstrous nerfs to spells like Word of Glory, though, Protection Paladins are continuing to be the most prominent spec involved in the zero-healer strategy, even though other classes like Blood Death Knight and Protection Warrior also have strong self-healing capabilities. 

When combined with other classes that can pump out respectable healing even in their DPS configurations, Protection Paladins have even less to worry about. Retribution Paladin, Devastation Evoker, and Shadow Priest all have off-healing spells of their own—most of which are AoE effects that can help keep the entire groups’ health bars topped off. 

Related: How to deal with the Afflicted affix in your WoW Mythic+ runs

Psybear also mentioned that some of the members of his group were using the embellished item Undulating Sporecloak, which causes you to heal for a flat amount whenever you’re above 70 percent total HP and gain a shield whenever you drop below 30 percent HP. This item undoubtedly plays a role in the survivability of players, and if you’re looking to try out a four-DPS composition with your Mythic+ team, you should look toward using the Undulating Sporecloak to get an extra lifeline. 

In Patch 10.1.5, the off-healing meta could take a tumble, though, as Blizzard plans to implement changes to the way classes spend their mana. Almost every class that uses mana as a resource will have their maximum mana increased, with high-profile cleansing and healing spells having their base mana costs upped as well. 

Although the no-healer meta seems to be a viable strategy in certain cases (for now), the presence of a healer will certainly make your life easier. According to WoW stats site Raider.io, 366 dungeons at level +25 have been timed this season—and all of them have been done with a healer in the team composition.